Seniors Lead Men's Basketball Past Rival Haverford 91-80

SWARTHMORE, Pa. - For seniors Michael Giannangeli and Marc Rogalski, it doesn't get much better than beating your arch-rival for the first time on Senior Day.

Giannangeli scored a career-high 19 points, Rogalski recorded his second career double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds), junior Will Gates finished with a team-high 20 points and sophomore Davis Ancona netted a career-high 19 points to help the Swarthmore College men's basketball team defeat rival Haverford 91-80 on Saturday afternoon from Tarble Pavilion.

While the spotlight was deservedly on Giannangeli and Rogalski, sophomore Davis Ancona stole the show with his career day. Ancona finished with career highs in points (19), blocks (6) and rebounds (8) while bringing down the house with two monster dunks, one of which sealed the game for the Garnet in the final minutes. Gates also added a game-high 11 rebounds to record his fourth double-double of the 2011-12 season.

The win is the Garnet's first against hated-rival Haverford since 2007, snapping a streak of 10-consecutive losses. The 91 points scored by Swarthmore is a season-high and the most scored by a Garnet team since February 20, 2008 at Washington College.

For Haverford, senior Ian Goldberg scored a game-high 30 points, including the 1,000th of his career. Junior Cam Baker finished with 20 points, also recording the 1,000th point of his career in the first half.

After the opening basket of the game, the Garnet led wire-to-wire, building a comfortable lead and withstanding several Ford runs throughout the contest.

Swarthmore jumped out to a 13-4 lead, as a lay-up in traffic from sophomore Jordan Federer capped the run at the 14:10 mark of the first half.

With the lead and the crowd behind it, the Garnet's offense continued to execute at a level unseen all season for the remainder of the half. Behind its 52 percent first-half shooting, Swarthmore entered the locker room with a 44-37 advantage.

While Swarthmore maintained its lead throughout the game, the Fords made it interesting on several occasions. Goldberg -- who played superb all afternoon -- went on a 7-0 run of his own, making it a 61-56 game at the 10:34 mark of the second half. On the ropes, the Garnet responded with back-to-back threes from Federer and Giannangeli to go back on top 67-56.

From that point on, Haverford would never get any closer than eight points from the Garnet lead. The final dagger came from Ancona, who powered home his second dunk of the afternoon while drawing a foul with 1:10 to play, sending Tarble into a frenzy.

Federer added nine points and a team-high seven assists.

Swarthmore finished the season 3-22 (3-15 CC).