McDaniel escapes Swarthmore with win to advance to playoffs for third time in four years

SWARTHMORE, Pa. – Cullen Murray-Kemp (Trappe, Md./Easton) recorded his first career double-double to lead McDaniel to a 57-51 victory over Swarthmore in Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball action on Wednesday.

Murray-Kemp netted 14 points and a career-best 10 rebounds to lead the Green Terror (13-11, 10-7 CC), who secured a CC playoff bid for the third time in the last four seasons. McDaniel concludes the regular season at Gettysburg on Saturday. After the Bullets defeated Dickinson 59-57 in overtime, Saturday's contest will determine the remaining first-round bye.

Jordan Federer paced the Garnet (6-18, 3-14 CC) with 15 points while Jay Kober added 12.

Knotted at 51-all, Marcus Dyson (Scotch Plains, N.J./Union Catholic) hit a pair of free throws to once again give McDaniel a two-point advantage with 2:09 on the clock.

With 41.3 seconds showing, Swarthmore missed both free throws with a chance to tie the game.

At the other end of the floor, Christopher Cowles (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) converted both of his attempts to make it a two-possession game with 23.5 seconds left.

After a Garnet turnover, Devon Lesniak (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) hit both of his attempts from the charity stripe with 11.9 seconds on the clock to set the final margin.

After four points from Gates staked Swarthmore to a 4-0 lead 1:36 into the game, McDaniel reeled off 14 straight points to force a Garnet timeout with 12:37 on the clock.

A Marcus Dyson (Scotch Plains, N.J./Union Catholic) jumper on the block late in the shot clock started the stretch with 17:09 showing before Murray-Kemp knotted the game 27 seconds later.

A Dyson layup on the break and Woody Butler (Smithsburg, Md./Middletown) dunk stretched the lead to four.

Four straight Swarthmore free throws closed the deficit to 14-8 with 11:23 to play before Cowles drilled a 3-pointer with the shot clock running down and hit a running layup to push the lead to 11 with 9:45 remaining.

Kober snapped a 9-minute, 43-second drought from the floor with an elbow jumper but Louis Sarris-Grau (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Lower Moreland) stretched the lead back to 14 with a layup and his third 3-pointer of the season with 6:19 on the clock.

Sarris-Grau, who finished the first half with a season high-matching 11 points, stretched the lead to as many as 17 en route to a 36-21 halftime advantage.

A Kober jumper and two free throws followed by a Ryan Carmichael tip-in drew the Garnet within 42-35 with 13:27 to play.

Seven Swarthmore free throws capped a 13-0 run that knotted the game with 9:25 showing.

After going 6 minutes, 36 seconds with a point and 8 minutes, 20 seconds with a basket, Murray-Kemp converted an old-fashioned three-point play to spark a quick 5-0 burst to put McDaniel on top 47-42 with 8:33 to play.

A driving layup from Michael Jarboe (Monrovia, Md./Urbana) stretched the lead to 51-44 before Kober nailed a 3-pointer from the right corner to trim the deficit to four with 4:19 to play.

Two Gates free throws 1:14 later later made it a 51-49 game before Ancona tipped in a Federer miss on the break to even the game at 51-all with 2:31 showing.

Lesniak finished with eight points and four assists.

Game time on Saturday is 2 p.m.

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