Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Gettysburg erased an early 22-point deficit, but Jaclyn Hilf made eight straight free throws at the end of the game as the Bears held off the Bullets 69-64 in Centennial Conference women's basketball action Saturday afternoon at Helfferich Hall.
The Bullets (8-6, 5-3 CC) were outscored 25-3 to start the game, but a driving lay-up from sophomore guard Allie Drechsler (Westminster, Md./Winters Mills) with 1:49 left gave her team its first lead (60-58) of the day. But Sarah Hennessey converted a conventional three-point play 18 seconds later before Hilf iced the game with eight of her game-high 23 points.
Drechsler led Gettysburg with a season-high 18 points to go with nine rebounds and five assists
while sophomore forward Courtney Fields (Baltimore, Md./St. Paul's School for Girls) posted her second straight double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman forward Caitlin Moser (Wyomissing, Pa./Wyomissing) notched her fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and 12 boards.
Alex Shivers added 19 points for Ursinus (7-7, 5-2 CC), which avenged a 58-46 loss to Gettysburg in December, while Hennessey netted 16 points.
The Bears made nine of their first 15 shots to start the game to assume their 22-point advantage. Ursinus made all four of their first-half three-pointers during the stretch, with Hennessey connecting from deep three times. Moser snapped the drought for Gettysburg, dropping in a lay-up with 10:18 left. Starting with that bucket, the Bullets outscored the Bears 22-11 over the remainder of the half to make it an 11-point game (36-25) at the break.
The Bullets continued their run in the second half, scoring the first six points of the period to make it 36-31 with 16:46 left. Ursinus answered with a 10-2 run, with a Hilf trey giving the Bears a 46-33 lead with 13:30 to go.
Gettysburg refused to go away, however, coming back with a 15-2 surge of its own to make it a two-point game with just under 10 minutes left. Fields got things started with a three-pointer before Drechsler scored the next eight points, knocking down back-to-back treys followed by a lay-up to set the score at 48-46 with 9:53 left.
Senior guard Megan Hartman (Lewistown, Pa./Indian Valley) connected on her only three-pointer of the game to pull the Bullets to within one (52-51) with 6:02 left, and after Ursinus pushed its lead back to six, Gettysburg used a 9-1 run to take its first lead of the afternoon. Hartman made it a tie game (58-58) for the first time since the opening tap when she nailed a turnaround jumper in the lane with 2:15 on the clock, and the Bullets got a stop on the ensuing possession when junior forward Nicole Dobranski (Albertson, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) blocked a shot at the top of the key.
Drechsler then converted her big lay-up to complete the run before after Hennessey's three-point play gave the Bears the lead for good. Drechsler made it a one-point game (63-62) on a driving lay-up with 26 ticks showing, and after Hilf's third and fourth free throws, the Bullets had a chance to tie it with a three-pointer. However, junior guard Margaret White (Burke, Va./James W. Robinson) and Drecshler each misfired from beyond the arc, and Hilf then put the game away with four more foul shots sandwiched around a Moser lay-in.
Gettysburg plays its final non-conference game of the season on Monday, when it hosts Richard Stockton at 7 p.m.
