GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Senior Jenna Swope (Warminster, Pa./Archbishop Wood) and junior Jessica Porter (Narberth, Pa./Lower Merion) combined for 34 points as the Gettysburg College women's basketball team took down Swarthmore College 65-46 inside Bream Gym Saturday afternoon.
Gettysburg (4-0, 2-0 CC) received 19 points and 10 rebounds from Porter, while Swope chipped in with 15 points, five rebounds, four assists, and a pair of steals. Freshman Emily Gibbons (Annapolis, Md./Severn School) added eight points in the second half.
Jessica Jowdy paced Swarthmore (1-3, 0-2 CC) with 15 points, while Elle Larsen tallied 11 points.
The Garnet came out firing and held the lead for nearly 11 minutes to start the contest. Swope put the Bullets ahead for the first and last time at 15-14 with an old-fashioned three-point play at 9:12. The play sparked the hosts to 16-0 run with five different players reaching the scoring column.
Gettysburg went into the break with a double-figure advantage for the third consecutive game at 28-16.
Swarthmore was far from finished, nearly erasing the 12-point deficit in the opening five minutes of the final period. After a three-pointer by freshman Jamie Relin (Lititz, Pa./Manheim Township) made it 33-19, the Garnet turned in the next dozen points with a lay-up by Jowdy making it 33-31 at 15:01.
After exchanging possessions without a score, Gettysburg received a corner three-pointer by Swope to regain the momentum. The Bullets tallied eight-straight points to push the lead back to 10 (41-31) with 12:02 left to play.
A three-point play by Elle Larsen broke the streak, but the hosts came right back with a 16-2 run over the next five minutes. Gibbons converted three consecutive buckets to push the lead to 21 (57-36) with just over six minutes remaining.
Gettysburg connected on 27-of-62 (43.5 percent) of its field-goal attempts, while holding Swarthmore to just 17-of-58 (29.3 percent). The Bullets out-rebounded the Garnet 45-38 and scored 24 points off 19 turnovers.
After a slow start, Porter finished 8-of-20 from the floor. The double-double was her first since scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 boards against William Paterson University in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2013.
Swope finished 6-of-12 from the floor and canned a pair of three-point attempts. Senior Samantha Pagel (Harleysville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) posted five points, six rebounds, and four assists, while freshman Annie Reilly (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) grabbed eight boards.
Gettysburg heads to Dickinson College for a Centennial Conference match up on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 6 p.m.