SWARTHMORE, Pa.  — The Averett University men's basketball team suffered a heart-breaking 61-60 loss to Swarthmore College on Saturday in the consolation game of the Swarthmore College Garnet Holiday Tournament.
 
Averett (2-8) trailed by as many as six late in the game. However, the Cougars stormed back and put together a 6-1 run to get within one on junior Darin Ketner's layup with two seconds on the clock. The Cougars forced a Swarthmore (8-1) turnover on the ensuing driving to get the ball back and give themselves an opportunity to win the game. Averett, though, committed a costly turnover, helping the Garnets pick up the win.
 
Neither team allowed each other to breathe down the stretch. Swarthmore more took a 60-54 lead when Chris Bourne made his layup in the paint with 2:43 left in regulation. The Cougars fought back and pulled within two on a layup from junior James Contreras Jr. at the 54-second mark. After neither team was able to find the hoop on its ensuing drives, Averett was forced to foul, where Sam Lebryk made one of his two free throws to push the Garnet's lead back to three. However, Ketner's layup in the paint pulled the Cougars back within one with two ticks on the clock.
 
Averett led by as many as eight when freshman Moriba Diaby converted his layup in the paint to give the Cougars a 41-33 advantage just over five minutes into the second period. Swarthmore responded with eight consecutive points to knot the score at the 12:36 mark. Averett responded with a 7-0 run of its own to push its advantage back to seven, but once again Swarthmore pushed back and took the lead for good on a 3-pointer from Zack Yonda with 7:31 left in regulation.
 
Swarthmore took its largest advantage of the contest on a layup from Nate Shafter to give the Garnet's an 11-4 lead seven minutes into the game. The Cougars bounced back, though, and regained the lead on a 3-pointer from sophomore Austin DeLucia with 6:12 left in the first period. Averett took a six-point advantage with Contreras' layup with just over a minute left before the break.
 
Contreras finished with team-highs of 15 points and five assists to pace the Cougars' attack. Senior Charles Bryant recorded 12 points and three steals for Averett.
 
The Cougars had another solid night crashing the boards, picking up 37 rebounds to Swarthmore's 32. Contreras picked up six defensive boards and Bryant finished with four. Bryant continued his climb up the program's all-time rebounding list over the weekend. In two games, Bryant recorded nine rebounds to give him 694 on his career, putting him three behind Paul Porter (2010-2014) for second place. Bryant earned All-Tournament Honors while averaging 15.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. 
 
Averett gets nearly a two-week rest before returning to action when it travels to Lynchburg, Virginia, on Dec. 31 to take on Lynchburg College at 2 p.m.

Swarthmore College Garnet All-Tournament Team
Rob DePersia, Nick DePersia, Rowan University
John Caldwell, Roanoke College
Chris Bourne, Swarthmore
Charles Bryant, Averett