SWARTHMORE, Pa. – Behind a balanced scoring attack and lights-out shooting effort from the field, the Ursinus men's basketball team upset No. 17 Swarthmore by a score of 95-86 on Tuesday night in Centennial Conference action.
With the win, the Bears improved to 11-8 overall and scored an important Centennial Conference win by improving to 8-6 overall in league play. It was the first win at Tarble Pavilion for the Bears since the 2012-13 season. Meanwhile, the Garnet fall to 18-4 overall and 11-3 in conference play.
Four Bear starters scored 15+ points in the win, led by freshman Sean Neylon with a team-high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point range. Neylon grabbed five rebounds and two assists in the win as well. Classmate Cole Grubbs poured in a career-high 18 points behind a perfect 7-of-7 shooting from the field and grabbed five rebounds. Senior Ryan Hughes matched Grubbs with 18 points and completed a double-double with 11 rebounds while tallying two assists plus two blocks. Sophomore Trevor Wall did a little of everything with 16 points, seven rebounds, and four assists in addition to a perfect 6-of-6 effort from the free throw line. Freshman Jaiden Jakubowski added nine key points off the bench for the Bears after going 4-of-6 from the field.
Hughes set the tone for the game on the Garnet's first possession with a block on the first shot attempt of the game, which in turn led to Grubbs getting the Bears on the board first. Ursinus jumped out to a 6-2 advantage at the 17:40-mark of the first half before Swarthmore responded with seven-straight points to go up 9-6. The Garnet began heating up from beyond the arc and extended their advantage out to 21-12 at the 12:28-mark of the first half. Two more three-pointers helped Swarthmore take its largest lead of the game at 29-17 with 10:26 left in regulation, but the Bears began to claw their way back in the game with a 12-4 run to cut the deficit down to 33-29. Swarthmore responded to go back up 42-34 at the 5:48-mark of the first half before Wall reeled off five-straight points for the Bears to make it a 42-39 contest. Ursinus hung around for the final four minutes of the first half and Hughes gave the Bears some momentum into halftime on a layup with five seconds left, making it a 49-48 game.
Neylon came out on fire in the second half for the Bears as he scored five quick points to give Ursinus their first lead since the opening minutes of the first half at 53-49. Grubbs continued the Bears surge in the opening minutes of the second half by scoring the next six points for Ursinus and putting them up 59-55 at the 16:05-mark. After the Garnet cut the deficit down to 59-57, the Bears used a 12-2 run and went up 71-59 at the 12:49-mark of the second half. Ursinus held the Garnet without a point for a span of 3:10 and continued to maintain their lead out to 75-66 at the 10:19-mark. Swarthmore used back-to-back layups to cut the Bears lead down to 75-70 with 8:52 left in regulation, but Ursinus continued to have answers for Garnet baskets and took a 79-72 lead off jumpers from Jakubowski and Wall. The Garnet countered with two-straight field goals to make it a 79-76 game before Grubbs added three-straight points to his night to put the Bears back up six at 82-76. Grubbs made two important free throws following a three-pointer from the Garnet, putting Ursinus up 84-79 at the 3:08-mark and Wall added a pair on the next possession to bring the score to 86-79. Neylon then came up with the biggest play of the night after a pair of Swarthmore free throws as he converted a three-point play to give Ursinus an 89-81 lead with 57 seconds left in regulation. The Bears went 4-of-6 in the final minute from the free throw line and held the Garnet at bay to complete the upset.
The Bears shot 53.2 percent (33-of-62) from the field and went a sizzling 10-of-19 (52.6%) from three-point range. Ursinus went 19-of-23 (82.6%) and held a slight 41-37 edge in rebounds. Meanwhile, the Garnet went 32-of-77 (41.6%) from the field and 13-of-39 (33.3%) from three-point range. Swarthmore was held to go just 4-of-19 from three-point range in the second half and went 9-of-13 69.2 percent from the charity stripe.
Vinny DeAngelo and Aidan Godfrey each paced the Garnet with a game-high 22 points with Godfrey adding eight rebounds and going 9-of-12 from the field. George Visconti tallied 12 points and five assists for Swarthmore while Matt Mulvey added 12 points off the bench.
Ursinus returns to action on Thursday, February 10th as they will play their final non-conference game of the season at Widener with a 7 p.m. tip-off.