Kurman’s shot capped a Swarthmore rally that erased an 11-point halftime deficit. Franklin & Marshall still held a ten-point lead with half of the second period to play, but a four-minute 11-2 run got the Tide within a point. Dillon McGrew put a bow on the run with 6:11 showing, knocking down a three as the shot clock waned to make it 55-54, still in favor of F&M. Adam Leonard responded with a three to make it a four-point Diplomats’ lead.
F&M stretched it back to five briefly on a Logan Outerbridge lay-up. He completed the three-point play making it 61-56. Back-to-back doubles by Raul Ordonez cut it back to one, 61-60, with 3:30 left in the game before F&M again benefited from an old-fashioned three-point play from Brandon Chasen to make it 64-60.
Swarthmore finally claimed its first lead of the game with 1:46 left when McGrew stripped Chasen and finished the fast break with a lay-up. A Derek Hines put-back on a Chasen trey recaptured F&M’s lead, 69-68, with 1:12 left. McGrew once again answered, this time with a three-pointer that was answered six seconds later by another Hines lay-up drawing the squads even at 71 per side with 30 ticks.
Playing for the last shot, Swarthmore ran 29 seconds off of the clock before Kurman delivered the game-winning basket. An F&M desperation play resulted in a turnover as the clock expired.
McGrew finished the game with ten points, nine of which were scored in the second half. Evan Hamme led all scorers with 16 points to go along with six rebounds. Hines scored 13 and pulled down a game-high seven rebounds. In addition to Kurman and McGrew’s double-figures in the scoring column, Swarthmore got 11 points from Ian McCormick and Steve Wolf.
After hitting 18 of 32 shots from the field in the first half, Franklin & Marshall connected on just 12 of 30 shots in the second half. Swarthmore hit on 10 of 25 first half shots, but hung around with a five of eight effort from three-point range. The Tide’s second half shooting fell at a 64 percent rate as Swat knocked down 16 of 25 field goals.
SWARTHMORE 73, FRANKLIN & MARSHALL 71 SWARTHMORE (6-9, 3-5 CC) Matt Kurman 5-11 1-1 13; Ian McCormick 4-6 3-4 11; Steve Wolf 5-9 0-0 11; Raul Ordonez 3-5 4-6 10; Dillon McGrew 3-4 2-2 10; Chris Casey 3-3 0-0 8; Sean Johnson 2-7 3-4 7; Noam Fliegelman 1-2 0-0 3; Matt Allen 0-1 0-0 0; Aaron Sweeney 0-0 0-0 0; Matt Turner 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 26-50 13-17 73. FRANKLIN & MARSHALL (6-9, 5-3 CC) Evan Hamme 6-13 3-4 16; Derek Hines 6-9 1-4 13; Logan Outerbridge 3-9 3-3 9; Brandon Chasen 4-8 1-1 9; Brandon Yost 4-6 1-1 9; Adam Leonard 3-8 0-1 7; Bryan Teschke 2-4 0-0 4; Patrick Carney 2-2 0-0 4; Andrew McCaffrey 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 30-62 9-14 71. Swarthmore.................... 31 42 - 73 Franklin & Marshall........... 42 29 - 71 3-point goals--Swarthmore 8-16 (Matt Kurman 2-4; Chris Casey 2-2; Dillon McGrew 2-3; Noam Fliegelman 1-1; Steve Wolf 1-1; Sean Johnson 0-5), Franklin & Marshall 2-11 (Evan Hamme 1-2; Adam Leonard 1-2; Logan Outerbridge 0-4; Brandon Chasen 0-3). Fouled out--Swarthmore-None, Franklin & Marshall-None. Rebounds--Swarthmore 29 (Steve Wolf 5; Raul Ordonez 5), Franklin & Marshall 28 (Derek Hines 7). Assists--Swarthmore 10 (Chris Casey 5), Franklin & Marshall 13 (Brandon Chasen 5). Total fouls--Swarthmore 18, Franklin & Marshall 14. Technical fouls--Swarthmore-None, Franklin & Marshall-None. A-338