TCNJ succumbs to Swarthmore in season opener

EWING >> The College of New Jersey didn’t start the basketball season taking shots against some silhouettes.

No, the Lions opened with the 13th-ranked Division III team in the nation, Swarthmore.

The young Lions had some struggles early and then rallied to grab the lead in the second half, only to see Swarthmore take control late and grab an 82-65 win over TCNJ in the season opener for both teams on Tuesday night at Packer Hall.

The Garnet finished the game off on a 12-0 run and despite some opening game jitters showed why they are ranked.

“They are really good, and they have a returning point guard that has started for three years now,’’ TCNJ coach Matt Goldsmith said of Swarthmore and Cam Wiley. “It was a one possession game until we lost our heads a little bit. It was situation basketball and that one is on me. I knew we were young, and we should have done more situational hoops in practice. We’ll learn from this.’’

TCNJ (0-1) gained its first lead on a Niall Carpenter drive early in the second half to go up, 4039. A Randy Walko basket five minutes later made it 44-43, and it would be the Lions’ last lead.

“You take a loss like this in November, so you can go beat them in March,’’ said Goldsmith. “In a lot of spots we are ready, we are still figuring out the point guard. We had a lot of guys with the ball in their hands tonight. This was a classic young team issue.’’

Walko lead the Lions with 23 points and Travis Jocelyn added 11 as the only Lions in double digits. TCNJ shot a miserable 2-for-23 from beyond the arc.

Swarthmore was led by Conor Harkins with 20 points as five players were in double digits. The winners outrebounded the Lions 51-37, including 19 offensive rebounds.

It took a while for TCNJ to realize that Eric Murdock Jr. was now on the bench as an assistant coach, and it allowed the Garnets to jump to a quick 14-2 lead with just five minutes gone in the game.

But, what looked like a potential blowout early saw things come back together for the Lions when Jordan Glover, one of the Lions’ senior leaders, slammed down a dunk that brought some life back to Packer Hall.

Led by Randy Walko and a 15-for-18 first-half performance from the foul line, TCNJ clawed its way back in the game as they finished the half outscoring Swarthmore, 17-9.

When Walko drove to the basket and converted it made the score 33-31 with 1:28 left in the first period.

The Lions’ hopes were bolstered by a horrible shooting performance of 3-for-21 from beyond the arc for Swarthmore. Also, TCNJ didn’t help its cause from long distance as it was 0-for-9 from 3-point land.

It got better in the second half until the last four minutes, and then it was all No. 13 Swarthmore.