The Muhlenberg men's basketball team came back from 18 points down in the second half to force overtime before falling at Swarthmore, 85-80.

The Garnet (5-1, 1-0), which has played in the last six Centennial Conference championship games and was three spots out of the top 25 in the D3hoops.com preseason poll, led 48-30 about four minutes into the second half before the Mules (3-1, 0-1) began chipping away.

A pair of free throws by graduate student Dan Gaines at the 12:23 mark made it 52-43 and put Muhlenberg within single digits for the first time since the first half. The free throws were part of a 12-0 run that cut the margin to one, at 52-51, on a fast-break layup by sophomore Jayson Williams-Johnson with 8:52 to play.

A three-pointer by Gaines with 2:45 left gave the Mules their first lead, at 68-66. Swarthmore came back to take a 72-69 advantage, but Gaines drilled a three from the wing with 5.4 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. 

Sophomore Charlie Gillikin hit his fourth three-pointer of the game to start the overtime scoring, but the Garnet made back-to-back threes to open up an 82-77 lead. Gaines banked in a three with 16.5 ticks showing to make it 82-80, and Swarthmore beat the Muhlenberg press with a long pass for a layup on the ensuing inbounds. The Garnet added a free throw in the final 10 seconds for the final margin.

Gaines (pictured above) finished with 25 points, 5 assists and 4 steals. Gillikin recorded career highs of 12 points and 7 rebounds, and Williams-Johnson (13 points), senior Tommy McGuire (10) and junior Giovanni Rubino (10) also reached double figures. McGuire blocked 4 shots.