Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Gettysburg gave top-seeded and No. 17-ranked Ursinus all it could handle, but the Bears pulled away in the final minute to win the Centennial Conference championship game, 85-78, in front of a packed Helfferich Hall Sunday afternoon.
With the win, Ursinus (25-2) receives an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Gettysburg (22-4), which had its 11-game winning streak snapped, will await a possible at-large bid. The tournament field will be announced Monday afternoon.
Nick Shattuck led the Bears, who went 8-for-8 at the foul line in the final 42 seconds, with a game-high 27 points while junior guard Dan Capkin (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) nailed six three-pointers to lead the Bullets with 26 points.
Gettysburg trailed by as much as 10 in the opening half, but cut the lead to one at the break. Then in a thrilling second half, the Bullets led by as many as five as the game see-sawed back and forth for nearly the entire period. The final 20 minutes featured two ties and 10 lead changes.
“I thought we played well. I'm very proud of them,” said Gettysburg Head Coach George Petrie. “They did what we asked them to do offensively and defensively. I thought it was a great college game to watch.”
It was a two-point game (77-75) with 44 seconds left when junior guard Corey Dorsey (Frederick, Md./St. Johns at Prospect Hall) drained three straight free throws after a getting fouled on a three-point attempt. The Bullets then put Remy Cousart at the foul line for a 1-and-1, but Cousart nailed both attempts. At the other end of the floor, Michael Shema blocked a shot and Ursinus went to the line after picking up the loose ball. With the Bears in the double-bonus, Hilton knocked down two free throws to make it an 81-75 game with 26 seconds left.
Dorsey drew the Bullets to within three (81-78) after nailing an off-balance three-pointer from the left elbow with 16 ticks showing, but Hilton hit two more free throws to push Ursinus' lead to five. Dorsey then missed on his next three-point attempt, and Cousart hit two more foul shots with three seconds left to set the final score.
Freshman center Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) finished with 20 points and five assists for the Bullets while junior forward Joe Spierenburg (Chambersburg, Pa./St. Maria Goretti (Md.)) added a double-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and three blocks.
Hilton scored 15 points for Ursinus while Shema and Michael Noonan added 14 points apiece. Cousart finished with a game-high 16 rebounds.
Ursinus used a 7-0 run in the early going to open up a 15-7 lead with 13:25 on the clock following a Shattuck jumper. Shema carried the Bears in the early going, scoring six of Ursinus' first eight points and 10 of their first 19.
The Bears still led by eight (19-11) after a Shema fastbreak lay-up with 11:18 remaining before the Bullets used a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to one. Capkin got things started with a straightaway three-pointer before freshman forward Kevin Kennedy (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) banked in a jumper. Powers nailed a pair of free throws before Capkin dropped in a twisting lay-up on a feed from sophomore guard Brendan Hager (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga), making it 21-20 with 8:35 showing.
Ursinus pushed its lead into double digits (33-23) after a 13-3 run, but that's when the Bullets climbed back into thanks to some outside shooting from a pair of unlikely sources. Spierenburg knocked down a pair of threes while Powers also connected from beyond the arc, fueling a 13-2 run. Powers and Spierenburg drilled back-to-back treys from the top of the arc, making it 33-31 with 3:03 left, before Spierenburg splashed in another long ball from the same spot, making it a one-point game (35-34). Spierenburg brought the Bullets all the way back, converting a lay-up with 1:42 on the clock to give Gettysburg its first lead since it was 2-0.
Shattuck put the Bears back in front with a pair of buckets to make it 39-36, but the Bullets took some momentum into the locker room with a pair of big plays. Dorsey drew a charge on a Shattuck drive with 7.8 seconds left, and Spierenburg threw down a dunk off a Powers pass just before the buzzer to make it a 39-38 game at the half.
Spierenburg led the Bullets with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the opening half while Capkin added 10 points. Both teams shot 50.0% and grabbed 17 rebounds in the period, but Ursinus took more shots (36-28) and owned a 10-5 advantage in turnovers. Gettysburg hit five three pointers while Ursinus failed to connect from long range in the opening half.
The Bullets continued to light it up from the outside at the start of the second half, hitting a trio of three-pointers over the opening three minutes of the period to push their lead to five (47-42). Capkin was red-hot in the early going, scoring all 16 of his second-half points over the opening 10 minutes of the stanza, and his fadeaway jumper from the left baseline with 10:01 left gave Gettysburg a 63-58 lead.
Gettysburg led 65-60 after a pair of Powers free throws, but Ursinus answered with a 6-0 run, capped by a pair of Shattuck jumpers, to go back in front. There were four more lead changes and one tie over the next three minutes, as Powers put the Bullets ahead twice with a hook shot and a driving lay-up. However, a Noonan three-pointer with 3:44 left put the Bears in front (71-69) to stay.
Powers dropped in a fastbreak lay-up off a full-court pass from junior guard Chris Nevolo (Neshanic Station, N.J./Somerville) to make it 75-72 with 1:40 left, but Shema answered with perhaps the biggest shot of the game, nailing a short jumper just before the shot clock expired with 1:00 left.
Gettysburg shot 49.1% for the game while Ursinus went 45.7% from the field despite making only 3-of-14 three-pointers. The Bears out-rebounded the Bullets 39-31.
“They're disappointed,” said Petrie. “They really wanted it, and they worked very hard to get to this point. We'll have to wait until next year to try again, but in the meantime we hope to go into the second season and try to advance.”
