SWARTHMORE, Penn. (Nov. 23, 2024) – Swarthmore College sophomore guard Brady Kageyama hit a pair of foul shots with 55 seconds left in the first half to break a tie score and put the Garnet ahead to stay as the home team defeated Rutgers University-Camden, 65-53, to hand the Scarlet Raptors their first loss of the season in a non-conference game here Saturday.
 
Rutgers-Camden, which had tied the 50-year old program record for its best start ever with a win Thursday at Hunter College, falls to 5-1.
 
Swarthmore improved to 3-2 with its third straight win.
 
Both teams had leads in the first half, which also featured five ties. The last came at 28-28 following a jumper by Rutgers-Camden junior forward Cameron Downs late in the opening half. With 55 seconds remaining, however, Kageyama's foul shots lifted the Garnet to a 30-28 halftime lead and the Scarlet Raptors never quite caught Swarthmore in the final half.
 
The Garnet opened the second half with a trey by junior guard Cal Hanson and the closest the Scarlet Raptors came after that was when junior guard Eric Benjamin followed with his own trey to make it a 33-31 game. Swarthmore eventually opened up a 55-45 lead before a three-point play by junior forward Cherif Kanoute cut the gap to 55-48 and freshman guard/forward Ryan Senft scored on a layup to make it 55-50 with 4:58 remaining. The Garnet scored the next seven points to put the game away.
 
Kageyama and junior forward Devin Burger both scored 12 points to lead Swarthmore, with Burger adding a game-high eight rebounds. Burger also had three steals, to tie junior guard Eddie Paquette for game-high honors. Paquette finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.
 
Rutgers-Camden received 17 points and seven rebounds from Downs, while Benjamin added 12 points. Sophomore guard Lamar Davis and Kanoute added eight and seven points, respectively.
 
Senft dished off a game-high four assists.
 
Rutgers-Camden shot 19-for-52 (36.5 percent) from the field and 9-for-12 (75.0) from the foul line, while Swarthmore was 23-for-66 (34.8) from the floor and 12-for-16 (75.0) from the line.
 
The Raptors made 17 turnovers, while the Garnet had 12.
 
The Scarlet Raptors begin their New Jersey Athletic Conference schedule on Tuesday with an 8 p.m. game at Rutgers-Newark.