City of Basketball Love

By David Comer
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While the head coach of the Swarthmore men’s basketball team has changed, not much else has for the Garnet. They still play the up-tempo, fast-paced, high-scoring, unselfish style that has become the trademark of Swarthmore basketball. And they keep winning.

First-year head coach Shane Loeffler brings a wealth of coaching experience. He joined the Swarthmore coaching staff at the start of the 2017-18 season and was the associate head coach before being promoted to head coach in the off-season. He also played for the Garnet for the coach he replaced - the legendary Landry Kosmalski - who left following last season to take an assistant coaching job at Division I Campbell after transforming the program into a powerhouse.

The Garnet are off to a 3-0 start with a seasoned roster that includes four seniors and seven juniors.

“We’re experienced,” Loeffler said. “We have a lot of guys who know what it takes. Ideally, if we stay healthy, we have a lot of guys who can help us.”

And they have a lot of guys who can shoot. They are 36-of-80 from beyond the arc to rank 13th nationally in Division III at 45.0%.

“We’re a good shooting team,” Loeffler said. “We knew going into the year we didn’t have any weak links shooting. We knew our guys could shoot like this. It’s great to see them take shots with confidence.”

Leading the offense for the Garnet is guard Eddie Paquette, a 6-foot-3 senior from Vienna, Va. Paquette is scoring a team-high 15.0 points per game. He has scored 817 career points and 1,000 is within reach.

“He’s just a gritty player and an extremely hard worker,” Loeffler said. “His motor is so high he gets bruised a lot and beat up a lot.”

This year, though, Loeffler said that Paquette was healthy during the summer and preseason, and that has helped him enjoy a fast start to the season.

Swarthmore is undefeated thus far without sophomore guard Zander Jimenez. The 6-foot-3 guard earned Rookie of the Year Honors and second-team all-league honors in the Centennial Conference after averaging 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game as a freshman. Loeffler said Jimenez was injured in the team’s first scrimmage.

“He’ll be back soon,” Loeffler said. “The timetable for his return is to be determined.”

Loeffler said that he is enjoying his first season as the head coach at his alma mater.

“I’ve enjoyed it immensely,” he said. “We recruit really good guys. It’s really a fun group to coach.”

While Kosmalski is no longer on the Swarthmore coaching staff, he is still helping. Loeffler said that he texts or speaks with his former coach and his former boss weekly.

“He’s always willing to help,” Loeffler said. “Anytime I have a question, he’s quick to respond.”

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A record-setting day for Haverford women

Saturday was a memorable day for the Haverford women’s basketball team, even though it ended in a loss.

The Fords entered their game Saturday against 22nd-ranked Elizabethtown at 2-0 and nearly pulled the upset but fell 115-104 in double overtime. Along the way, Haverford set the school’s all-time single-game scoring record, surpassing the previous mark of 93 that was set against Cedar Crest in 1998.

“We were right there,” coach Grace Elliott said. “We kind of ran out of steam in the end. I’m very proud of our team’s fight for sure. … You could tell early on the pace of the game was really fast.”

Leading the way for the Fords was junior Audrey Jakway, a 6-foot forward from St. Paul, Minn., who set a Haverford single-game scoring record with 42 points, surpassing the previous mark of 36 points.

“I didn’t even realize she had 42 points,” Elliott said. 

Elliott said that Jakway, who averaged 13.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per game last season as a sophomore, was part of her first recruiting class.

“She’s been really good for us,” Elliott said. “She’s gotten better every year. You could tell she was going to be really good. Last year was a breakout year for her. I have no doubt this is going to be her year.”

Saturday was certainly her day. She was 17-of-26 from the field, including 4-of-7 from deep, and 4-of-6 from the foul line. She added 16 rebounds.

“She’s a gym rat,” Elliott said. “I think that has a lot to do with her development.”

Jakway is a chemistry major who Elliott said is a dedicated student who is busy with classwork and labs related to her area of study.

“I don’t know how she does it,” she said.

Haverford improved to 3-1 with a 52-44 win over Neumann on Tuesday, proving that basketball can be a funny game sometimes. The Fords scored 104 points and lost on Saturday and then in their next game scored 52 points and won.

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Rowe reaches milestone for York

Downingtown East graduate Jayden Rowe is continuing his outstanding career at York. Rowe, a 6-foot-4 guard, scored his 1,000th career point in a season-opening win over Hobart. 

Rowe, after transferring from Millersville, has found a home with the Spartans. He has started all 84 games he has played at York since he arrived before the 2022-23 season and has been a model of consistency, averaging 12.2, 13.1 and 12.0 points per game in his first three seasons. His overall field goal and three-point percentages have improved each season.

He was a key member of last year’s team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, and this season he is York’s leading scorer at 22.3 points per game and rebounder at 6.3 rebounds per game during the Spartans’ 4-0 start.

York plays locally at Eastern on January 7 and at Widener on January 28.

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Immaculata women keep on winning

A year after finishing with a 22-4 record, winning the regular-season and postseason AEC championships and earning a berth in the NCAA tournament, the Immaculata women’s basketball team is continuing its winning ways.

The Mighty Macs are 2-0 with wins over Moravian and Ursinus. And it’s a freshman who is their top scorer so far. Abby Grillo, a 5-foot-10 guard from Padua Academy in Wilmington, Del., is averaging a team-best 19.0 points per game. She scored 26 points in her collegiate debut.

Immaculata has two other players scoring in double figures. Senior Olivia Ettorre, a 5-foot-9 guard from Mickleton, N.J., who was the AEC championship game MVP last season, is scoring 16.5 points per game. And sophomore Carly Coleman, a 5-foot-10 forward from Cardinal O’Hara, who was last season’s AEC Rookie of the Year, is averaging 11.5 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game.

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Layups

The Scranton women’s basketball team received national attention with its 69-63 win over Division I Pittsburgh in an exhibition game on Sunday. Lizzie Halligan (Academy of Notre Dame), Marisa Francione (Conestoga) and Brooke Olender (Archbishop Carroll) are local players on the Scranton roster. … Last season, the Juniata men’s basketball team finished 2-23 and didn’t win its second game until February 15. This year, the Eagles have already matched last year’s win total as they picked up their second win on November 15. A large part of Juniata’s early success is junior guard Ty Kocak, a Pennsbury grad who is averaging 14.0 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. … Ursinus senior guard Ava Possenti is continuing her superb defensive play. Through three games, she is tied for 8th in Division III with 5.3 steals per game. The Garnet Valley product, who had 8 steals in the season opener against Widener, now has 183 career steals and is within reach of the program record of 275. … Through games of November 16, the Valley Forge men’s basketball team leads Division III in three-point field goal percentage at 53.12%.