GETTYSBURG, Pa. - The Haverford College men's basketball team (3-8, 1-3 CC) returned to Pennsylvania and Centennial Conference action to open up the 2023 portion of the season on Wednesday, but the host Bullets of Gettysburg (5-6, 2-2 CC) prevailed by a 63-48 final at Bream Gym.
A short-handed Haverford side still logged three players in double-digit scoring, with Harry Johnson (12 points) leading that charge in the midweek nightcap. Dhruv Mehrotra (10 points) and Nicholas Stewart (10 points) also tallied in double-digit scoring while three different Fords notched five or more rebounds in the contest. Johnson and Stewart notched a team-best six in that category.
Gettysburg started strong out of the gates, logging the first five points of the contest to stake the early lead. Ultimately, the Bullets' lead stretched to 12-5 and Haverford was forced to claw back. The Fords did well to get right back in the contest, with triples from Johnson and Mehrotra trimming the Gettysburg lead to just four at 17-13. Mehrotra then poured in a layup ahead of back-to-back buckets from Johnson and Nick Kerkorian, as suddenly the Fords were in the lead at 19-17 with 8:27 to go in the first half.
Mehrotra continued a strong stretch to put the Fords up three with 5:45 to play, but a 9-2 Bullets run to close out the first half helped the hosts take a four-point cushion into the intermission, wrestling back to the momentum as the teams headed into the locker rooms.
In the second, Haverford proved to be the more aggressive side in the early goings, knotting the score at 31-31 with a 6-0 run that included back-to-back layups from Nicholas Stewart. Antonello Baggi responded to that salvo with a conversion from beyond the arc for Gettysburg, and the bucket kicked off an 8-1 stretch that saw the hosts regain a lead that they did not relinquish for the remainder of the contest.
Mehrotra tallied from distance to put Haverford within five with 11:07 remaining, and the Fords were able to hang right in the contest thanks in part to the sharpshooting efforts of Mehrotra and Stewart, who put the Fords within three at 43-40 at the 9:53 mark.
Baggi had an immediate answer for Gettysburg. A Ryan Trotter jumper with 6:32 to go trimmed the lead back to just six, but Gettysburg then unleashed a sustained 12-1 run to put things away, with the lead reaching its apex of 16 with just over 30 seconds to play in the contest with Haverford forced to foul.
Jordan Stafford had a game-best 16 points for Gettysburg, while Elijah Williams had a standout contest with eight points and 14 rebounds.
Gettysburg shot 38.7 percent from the field to just 33.3 percent for the Fords, while the hosts also knocked down eight of 12 threes to help build the lead. Gettysburg held a 46-36 edge on the glass, but Haverford held the lead in bench points, pouring in 17 to just 11 for the Bullets.
Haverford will now face a quick turnaround, heading to Baltimore on Saturday to face off with another tough CC opponent in No. 15 Johns Hopkins. The contest is slated to begin at 3 p.m. inside Goldfarb Gymnasium.