Box Score
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Junior guard Corey Dorsey (Frederick, Md./St. John's at Prospect Hall) scored a game-high 24 points and Gettysburg held off a late rally to hand Muhlenberg its first Centennial Conference home loss of the season, topping the Mules 66-62 in Centennial Conference action Saturday afternoon at Memorial Hall.
With the victory, Gettysburg (17-3, 12-2 CC) tied its longest winning streak since the 2005-06 season with its sixth straight win. The Bullets also clinched their eighth-straight Centennial Conference playoff berth and have now posted their best start through 20 games in school history. Gettysburg remains two games behind Ursinus for first place in the Centennial Conference standings, as the Bears defeated McDaniel 68-66 on Saturday.
Dorsey shot 9-for-17 from the field and was 4-for-9 from downtown. Freshman center Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) posted his fourth double-double of the season for the Bullets with a 19-point, 12-rebound, six-assist effort. Junior guard Dan Capkin (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) was held to 12 points, just one above his season-low, but pulled down a career-high nine rebounds. And despite sitting much of the afternoon with foul trouble, junior forward Joe Spierenburg (Chambersburg, Pa./St. Maria Goretti (Md.)) pulled down nine rebounds and blocked five shots. Sophomore guard Brendan Hager (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) contributed a game-high six assists off the bench.
Peter Barnes paced Muhlenberg (10-11, 8-6 CC) with 17 points while Ryan Foster and Mike Bernardini added 10 point apiece. The Mules had won their previous six conference games in Allentown.
Gettysburg led by as much as 10 (59-49) after Dorsey's fourth and final three-pointer with 4:40 left before the Mules rallied with a 7-0 run to make it a one-possession game. Muhlenberg had a pair of chances to cut into the lead, but missed a lay-up and a potential game-tying three-pointer.
The Bullets gave themselves some breathing room when Capkin hit a pair of free throws with 1:43 left before Dorsey knocked down the front end of a one-and-one with 1:02 showing to make it 62-56. However, Gettysburg was called for a lane violation on the second shot, and Foster drilled a three-pointer with 34 seconds left as the Mules pulled to within 62-59.
Muhlenberg put Dorsey on the foul line with 28 seconds left, but this time he missed the front of a one-and-one, Gettysburg's only miss during a 12-for-13 day at the stripe. However, Powers chased down the loose ball on the right baseline and passed it to junior guard Chris Nevolo (Neshanic Station, N.J./Somerville), the Centennial Conference's leading free-throw shooter (92.3%) entering the game, who canned a pair of foul shots with 25 ticks showing. Foster than missed a trey before Nevolo connected on two more charity chucks to ice the game for the Bullets. Darrell Roth hit a three-pointer with four seconds left to set the final score.
Gettysburg won despite shooting 35.8% from the field, its lowest mark in a win this season. The Bullets held Muhlenberg to 33.8% shooting, marking the fifth straight game the Bullets limited their opponent to sub-40%.
The Bullets were cold in the early going, making just three of their first 14 field-goal attempts. Still, it was a 6-6 game four minutes in following a Spierenburg tip-in. But that's when the Mules went on a 6-0 run to open up its largest lead of the half (12-6) following a deep Foster fastbreak jumper from the left corner with 13:25 on the clock.
Spierenburg stopped the run with a jumper 30 seconds later, and he corralled all seven of his first-half rebounds in the game's opening 4:35. However, he was forced to sit the final 9:17 of the period after picking up his second foul.
Gettysburg used a 7-0 run midway through period to open up a four-point advantage. Capkin gave the Bullets their first lead when he dropped in a lay-up for his first points of the night with 9:37 to go, and Dorsey followed with a trey from the top of the arc to make it 20-16 with 8:52 remaining in the half.
The Mules tied the game twice before the end of the stanza, the last coming on a Tim Murray jumper with 5:43 left that made it 22-22. But a three-pointer from senior guard Matt Presby (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) with 5:23 to go put the Bullets in front to stay over the remainder of the period, although a driving lay-up from Darrell Roth 33 seconds before the break made it a one-point game (34-33) at the intermission.
Powers led all scorers with 12 points in the opening period, shooting 5-for-9 while throwing down an authoritative dunk with 2:52 left in the stanza. Dorsey added 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Gettysburg shot 36.8% in the opening half while the Mules connected on 41.7% of their shots.
Muhlenberg opened the second half with a 7-0 run, and a Barnes lay-up put the hosts on top 40-34 just over three minutes into the period. Powers gave the Bullets their first points of the stanza with a put-back at the 16:00 mark, and he followed up with a trey with 14:26 left to make it 42-39 in favor of the Mules.
A Roth three-pointer gave Muhlenberg a 45-41 lead with 13:36 to go, but that's when Gettysburg reeled off an 11-0 run over the next five and a half minutes to open up a 52-45 lead. Dorsey tied the game at 45-all, grabbing a rebound and going to coast-to-coast for a layp-up with 11:06 left, and his jumper just under a minute later gave the Bullets their first lead (47-45) since the first half.
Capkin extended Gettyburg's lead with a fastbreak lay-up on an outlet pass from Powers, and Dorsey capped the run with a straightaway three-pointer that put the Bullets up seven with 8:08 left.
Barnes ended the drought with a jumper at the 5:48 mark, making it 54-49, but Spierenburg fed Powers for a lay-up underneath. Dorsey followed up with his late trey as the Bullets held on to improve to 6-0 in games decided by five points or less this season.
Gettysburg continues its season on Wednesday, when it visits Johns Hopkins University at 7 p.m. in another Centennial Conference game.
