Olsen Scores Career-High 20 Points

CHESTERTOWN, MD – Senior forward Chris Olsen (Ellicott City, MD/Mount St. Joseph) scored a career-high and game-best 20 points as host Washington College topped visiting Swarthmore, 78-68, in Centennial Conference men's basketball action on Wednesday night at the Cain Athletic Center.  The Shoremen improve to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play, while the Garnet drop to 1-7 and 1-3 respectively.

In the first half, senior guard Sal Schittino (Ellicott City, MD/Loyola Blakefield) canned a jumper with 13:55 remaining to give Washington the lead for good at 14-12.  The Shoremen led 20-18 with 9:33 to go following a layup by Swarthmore's Jordan Federer before the hosts went on a 11-0 run to take a 31-18 lead with 6:47 left in the half on a Olsen jumper.  However the Garnet would come back and close the opening 20 minutes on a 14-4 run to trail just 35-32 at halftime.  Davis Ancona's free throw with 90 seconds left in the half capped the run and scoring in the first.

Washington opened the second half strong with a 20-4 run to take a 55-36 lead with 12:55 remaining in the game on a fast-break layup by junior forward Tony Hawkins (Mt. Ephraim, NJ/Haddon Township).  During the run, Washington held Swarthmore to just one field goal, while making eight shots from the floor.  The Shoremen would push the lead to 20 points on three separate occasions, the last one being 73-53 with 4:24 remaining in the contest on a jumper in the paint by Schittino.  Swarthmore would get it to 10 points and provided the final margin with eight seconds to go on a Matt Sharma lay-in.

Olsen had his career-high 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the floor and 5-for-6 from the free throw line.  Four other WC players joined Olsen in double figures in points.  Breslin had 14 points, Schittino added 12 points, while junior forward Charlie McShane (West Deptford, NJ/West Deptford) and sophomore forward Kevin Cunningham (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) each scored 10 points.  Breslin had seven rebounds and three steals, tying for the game-high and tops on the team in both categories.  Breslin and senior guard Mark DeBoy (Baltimore, MD/Mount St. Joseph) each handed out five assists to lead all players. 

Will Gates had 17 points to lead Swarthmore, but had just three points after halftime.  Federer and Joe Keedy each chipped in with 10 points on the evening.  Marc Rogalski had seven rebounds to lead Swarthmore and tie for tops in the game, while Jay Kober tied for game-high with a team-best three steals.  Rogalski and Kober each blocked two shots for the Garnet to lead all players.

The Shoremen shot 45% from the floor, 29% from three-point range and 85% (11-for-13) from the free throw line.  The Garnet shot 40% from the field, 37% from behind the arc and 72% (21-for-29) from the charity stripe.  Both teams each had 38 rebounds in the game.

Washington outscored Swarthmore in points in the paint (36-26), points off turnovers (27-16), second chance points (20-9) and fast-break points (15-7), while Swarthmore held a 31-28 edge in bench points.

The Shoremen return to the court on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. against visiting McDaniel in Centennial Conference action at the Cain Athletic Center.