Box Score
WESTMINSTER, Md. – Gettysburg erased a 13-point first-half deficit, but host McDaniel College edged the Bullets 56-53 in Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball action Wednesday evening.
After trailing by eight at halftime, Gettysburg (8-16, 7-10 CC) rallied to take the lead when senior forward
Cody Kiefer (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) completed a conventional 3-point play with 5:20 left, making it 51-49. However, Kiefer's bucket would turn out to be the team's last field goal of the game and the Green Terror would outscore the Bullets 7-2 the rest of the way.
Kiefer finished with 14 points and six rebounds for the Bullets, who suffered their sixth loss of the year by five points or less. Senior center
Tanner Kirkpatrick (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) contributed 10 points and six rebounds. Junior forward
Cameron Stewart (Sydney, Australia/Newington College) chipped in with 10 points.
Kevin Yrizarry led McDaniel (11-13, 7-10 CC) with 20 points, including a pair of go-ahead free throws with 2:35 remaining, while grabbing nine rebounds.
It was a tight game in the early going, as there were three ties and eight lead changes over the opening 9:25. The lead changed hands on eight straight field goals at one point, and a 3-pointer from Kiefer with 12:24 on the clock gave the Bullets their final lead (15-14) of the half.
A lay-up from freshman guard
Danny Duffey (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Lower Moreland) made it 17-all with 10:35 on the clock, and Gettysburg trailed just 22-21 after a lay-in from Kirkpatrick with 6:59 showing. But that's when the Green Terror used a 13-2 run to open up its largest lead of the half at 35-23 with 2:44 left.
The Bullets went into the locker room with some momentum, however, scoring the last four points of the stanza on lay-ups from Stewart and senior center
Mlynue Reeves (Washington, D.C./Church Farm School [Pa.]) to make it a 35-27 game at the break.
McDaniel pushed its lead back to 11 with 17:27 left following a lay-up from Yrizarry, but that's when the Bullets used a 12-2 run to climb back into it. Reeves kicked off the surge with a driving lay-up, and senior guard
Pete Christ (Pittstown, N.J./Delaware Valley Regional) capped it with a 3-pointer to pull the Bullets to within 43-42 with 11:17 remaining.
Kirkpatrick tied the game at 46-all with his lay-up at the 9:52 mark, and after a McDaniel 3-pointer, he converted another lay-in to make it 49-48 with 8:03 to go. The two sides then fell into an offensive lull, with neither team scoring until Kiefer's 3-point play with 5:20 left.
At the other end of the floor, DJ Harper banked in an acrobatic shot driving down the lane to tie the game at 51-all with 4:24 to go. Yrizzary's two late free throws put McDaniel in front to stay, and he banked in a tough baseline hook shot with 1:08 left to give the Terror a 55-51 lead with 1:08 to go.
Christ knocked down a pair of free throws to pull the Bullets to within 55-53 with 51 seconds left, but after a McDaniel turnover, Yrizarry rebounded a missed Gettysburg lay-up with 1.7 seconds left. He was fouled immediately and would make 1-of-2 foul shots. After he missed the second shot, the Bullets called a timeout with seven-tenths of a second left but were unable to get off a last-second shot following a full-court inbound pass.
Gettysburg closes its season on Saturday, when it hosts Ursinus College at 2 p.m. on Senior Day in another Centennial Conference tilt.
