Box Score

McGarvey, named the CC Player of the Year earlier in the week, also handed out nine assists and netted his 1,000^th career point to put the Bears (17-9) one win from their second conference title in the last three seasons. Ursinus will face the winner of Saturday’s F&M-Haverford semifinal for the championship on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

Matt Fabian led the way on the glass, tying a CC playoff record with 16 rebounds and helping the Bears enjoy a 47-25 rebounding advantage.

The loss overshadowed a career day for Bullet junior Matt Whelan (Ridgefield, CT/Ridgefield/Worcester Acad. [MA]), who hit 13 of 16 shots, including 5 of 6 3-pointers, to finish with a career-high 31 points, the team’s highest single-game total of 2004-05.

David Glaser (West Chester, PA/Malvern Prep) added 15 points for Gettysburg, which fell in the CC semifinals for the second straight year. The Bullets (16-10) will await a bid to next week’s ECAC South Region tournament. The ECAC field will be announced on Monday.

Led by McGarvey, Shattuck and a 14-for-26 showing from 3-point range, Ursinus shot itself into the championship game.

After watching Gettysburg fight back from a 14-point first-half deficit to take a 39-38 lead early in the second half, the Bears used another burst to finish the job.

McGarvey drained a 3-pointer to put Ursinus ahead to stay at 41-39, starting an 11-2 run. Will Furey completed a 3-point play during the stretch and Brian McEvily added a layup for a 49-41 lead with 14:41 remaining.

Threes from Chris Pombar (Glen Head, NY/North Shore) and Whelan cut the deficit to 51-47, but it was as close as the Bullets would get.

With Shattuck and McEvily providing 16 points, the Bears outscored Gettysburg 18-6 over the next 7 minutes, 8 seconds to take a commanding 69-53 lead with 6:28 left. Five points from McGarvey – including No. 1,000 on a 3-pointer with 1:57 left – gave Ursinus its largest lead of the game at 83-62.

The Bears threatened to run away in the early going. After a 10-10 start, Ursinus reeled off a 20-6 run to take a 14-point lead with 4:53 left before the intermission.

With Whelan driving to the basket for six of his eight first-half points, the Bullets responded with a 15-4 burst to cut the Bears’ lead to a manageable 34-31 halftime lead.

Two threes from Whelan and a Glaser layup gave Gettysburg a short-lived 39-38 lead in the opening 2:47 of the second half before Ursinus pulled away.

Before Saturday’s outburst, Whelan single-game scoring high was 19 points against Washington (Md.) last season. Pombar matched his career high with nine points.

McEvily finished with 13 points for the Bears, while Furey also hit double figures with 10 to go along with nine rebounds.

With the loss, the Bullets fell to 5-3 all-time in the CC playoffs.

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