SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team was unable to overcome a dominant second half by Swarthmore as they were eliminated from the Centennial Conference Tournament by the Garnet, 80-65, on Wednesday night in the first round.
 
 
The Bears will wrap up their 2023-24 season with a 13-13 record while the Garnet advance to the Centennial Conference Semifinals on Friday at Gettysburg.
 
 
Senior Trevor Wall maintained his status as the leading scorer in the Centennial Conference with a game-high 22 points while tallying five rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Sophomore Nick Nocito was the other Bears in double-figures with 13 points along with four rebounds.
 
 
The two teams went back and forth early as the lead traded hands five times in the first seven minutes. However, it was the Bears that surged into the first multi-possession lead of the night at 18-10 behind a 10-1 run at the 9:22-mark. Swarthmore rattled off seven straight points to make it 18-17 until a three-point play by junior Jaiden Jakubowski put Ursinus up 21-17. Another 7-0 run gave the Garnet a 24-21 lead at the 4:58-mark, but the Bears continued to battle back and tied things up at 26. A layup in the final minute gave Swarthmore a 28-26 lead heading into the half.
 
 
Swarthmore started fast with an 11-2 run to go up 39-28 at the 17:30-mark of the second half. Ursinus hung around the Garnet and resiliently stayed within striking distance throughout the second half. However, Swarthmore had an answer for any potential extended Bears run as they did not relinquish the lead. Ursinus got as close as 53-50 at the 9:03-mark before the Garnet laid what turned out to be the decisive run of 15-6 that put them up 68-56 with 3:27 remaining in regulation. Swarthmore only let their lead fall into single digits one time in the final three minutes.
 
 
The Bears shot 32.8 percent (20-of-61) from the field and just 18.2 percent (4-of-22) from three-point range. Ursinus shot a near-perfect 91.3 percent (21-of-23) from the free throw line. Meanwhile, the Garnet shot 48.4 percent (30-of-62) from the field behind a 58.1 percent clip in the second half. Swarthmore went 10-of-31 (32.3%) from three-point range, 10-of-17 (58.8%) from the free throw line, and held a slight 38-36 edge in rebounds.