GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team was doomed by a late second half run from Gettysburg as they fell 77-65 to the Bullets on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference action.
With the loss, the Bears drop to 6-3 overall and 3-1 in Centennial Conference action. Meanwhile, the Bullets improved to 7-4 overall and 3-2 in Centennial play.
Junior Kyle Maurer led the Bears offense with a team-high 18 points and grabbed one rebound. Freshman Cole Grubbs registered a double-double behind 10 points and a career-high 16 rebounds while classmate Sean Neylon added 10 points and six rebounds.
The Bears started slow from the field as they were held scoreless for the first 3:40 of the contest while the Bullets raced out to a 7-0 lead. Maurer got the Ursinus offense going by scoring five of the first seven points as they cut the Gettysburg lead down to 9-7 at the 15:13-mark of the first half. The Bears took their first lead of the contest at 13-11 after reeling off six-straight points. Each team traded small runs throughout the first half with neither team being able to gain a lead by more than five points during the remaining 13 minutes. The Bears ripped off five-straight points to take a 24-23 advantage at the 8:13-mark before the lead changed hands six times in the final eight minutes. Ursinus used an 8-2 run after trailing 32-31 to take their largest lead of the first half at 39-34 with 2:20 remaining until halftime. Gettysburg outscored the Bears 5-2 in the final two minutes to bring the score to 41-39 at the half.
Sophomore Beau Everett tallied the first four points of the second half for Ursinus as they held a 48-43 in the opening three minutes. The Bears took their largest lead of the contest at 52-46 with 15:23 left in regulation on a jumper from senior Ryan Hughes. However, the tied began to turn as the Bullets went on a 15-1 run to go up 61-53 at the 10:55-mark of the second half. Ursinus was held 4:44 without a made field goal while the Bullets went 6-of-8 from the field. Gettysburg continued to add to its run as they took a 67-55 edge at the 8:44-mark. Ursinus made a charge at the Bullets advantage by scoring eight-straight points to make it a 67-63 game at the 6:08-mark of the second half. Unfortunately for the Bears, that would be as close as they would get to Gettysburg the rest of the way. The Bullets closed the game on a 10-2 run and held Ursinus without a point for a stretch of 5:32.
The Bears shot 41.3 percent (26-of-63) from the field and a season low of 20.8 percent (5-of-24) from three-point range. Ursinus went 8-of-15 (53.3%) from the free throw line and held a slight 42-40 edge in rebounds. Meanwhile, the Bullets shot 44.6 percent (33-of-74) from the field and just 16 percent (4-of-25) from three-point range. Gettysburg forced 12 Ursinus turnovers that led to a 16-3 edge in points off turnovers while only turning the ball over four times during the full 40 minutes.
As a team, the Bullets received 49 points from its bench that was led by Jordan Stafford with a game-high 19 points. Stafford also tallied five rebounds and three assists while Rassoul Abakar posted 16 points along with eight rebounds. Avery Close was the lone Bullet starter to finish in double-figures for scoring with 10 points.
The Bears will return to action