Box Score

LANCASTER, Pa. – Gettysburg made 9-of-10 free throws in final 1:11 and the No. 22-ranked Bullets held on down the stretch to beat No. 24 Franklin & Marshall 73-66 in a thrilling Centennial Conference men's basketball contest Wednesday evening.

With the win, Gettysburg's eighth in a row, the Bullets (12-2, 7-1 CC) are now tied with McDaniel College, which defeated Johns Hopkins Wednesday night, for first place in the Centennial Conference standings. Gettysburg, F&M, and McDaniel entered the night in a three-way for first.

Sophomore center Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) posted his fourth-straight 20-point game, scoring a game-high 20 points and grabbing eight rebounds for Gettysburg, which overcame a 10-point deficit in the first half. Senior guard Corey Dorsey (Frederick, Md./St. John's at Prospect Hall) added 18 points while senior forward Joe Spierenburg (Chambersburg, Pa./St. Maria Goretti [Md.]) and senior guard Dan Capkin (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) added 14 points apiece. Spierenburg also grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots while Capkin notched eight rebounds and tied a career-high with six assists.

Freshman guard Georgio Milligan led F&M (13-2, 6-2 CC), which suffered its first home loss of the season, with 15 points and five assists. Sophomore forwards Mike Baker and James McNally added 14 points and 12 points, respectively, with both players grabbing seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Anthony Brooks had 11 points and five assists.

The Bullets posted their best shooting performance in their last 10 games, canning 52.2 percent of their field goals. Gettysburg, which entered the game ranked 12th in Division III in field-goal percentage defense (38.4 percent), held the Dips to a season-low 40.8 percent mark.

For the third game in a row, the Bullets shot over 80 percent at the foul line, going 16-for-19 (84.2 percent) at the charity stripe, the team's second-best mark of the season. Four of Gettysburg's free throws in the final minute came on a pair of one-and-one opportunities.

F&M shot only seven foul shots and made four.

It was the first time since Feb. 6, 2002 that the two teams faced off as ranked opponents.

Until the final minute of the game, neither team led by more than five in the second half, which featured six ties and four lead changes. A Brooks three-pointer tied the game at 57 with 6:22 left, but junior guard Brendan Hager (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) gave the Bullets the lead for good just over a minute later, when he took a nice feed from Dorsey cutting to the basket for a wide-open lay-up.

Gettysburg appeared to have gained some breathing room after a pair of Dorsey buckets, as his fadeaway jumper and three-pointer opened up a 64-59 lead with 3:19 left. But Baker knocked down back-to-back jumpers to pull F&M to within one with 1:53 showing.

The Diplomats nearly took the lead after gaining a fastbreak opportunity off a turnover with just over a minute left. But Dorsey tracked down a loose ball following an errant Diplomat pass, tipping it to senior guard Chris Nevolo (Neshanic Station, N.J./Somerville) while lunging out of bounds on F&M's baseline. At the other end of the floor, Powers canned a pair of free throws, making it 66-63 with 1:12 left.

F&M was unable to capitalize on the ensuing possession, missing the front end of a one-and-one, then misfiring on a pair of three-pointers. Dorsey came down with the rebound, and the Dips put Capkin on the foul line with 27 seconds left for a one-and-one situation. Capkin drained both shots to push Gettysburg's lead back to five (68-63).

Milligan kept F&M in it when he canned a trey from the top of the arc with 19 seconds left. The Dips fouled Dorsey, setting up another one-and-one, and he went 2-for-2 to make it a four-point game. Milligan then missed a three-pointer, and Spierenburg corralled the rebound before hitting both foul shots to put the game away.

The Diplomats offense was clicking in the early going, and F&M jumped to a 12-4 lead just over five minutes into the game. The hosts lead hit double-digits (24-14) midway through the half, and the Dips led 28-18 following a McNally lay-up with 8:33 showing. But that's when the Bullets dug in for a 13-0 run over the next five minutes.

Hager kicked off the rally, burying a trey from the left corner. Powers followed up with a soaring fast-break dunk over an F&M defender before Capkin drained a three, making it 28-26 with 4:50 to go. Powers tied the game with a lay-up, then gave his team its first lead of the night (31-28) with a triple from the right elbow with 3:28 remaining.

Brooks snapped the F&M drought with a jumper at the 3:06 mark. The rest of the half featured one tie and three lead changes, but a Spierenburg lay-up gave the Bullets a lead (35-34) that would hold up as the halftime score.

The Dips led only twice in the second half, first on a pair of Clay Scovill free throws with 15:43 left that made it 41-40, then on a Daniel Selig put-back with 11:07 remaining that put the hosts up 49-47. Brooks followed up with a fastbreak steal off a lay-up, but Gettysburg would not trail again after a 7-1 run.

The Bullets committed 20 turnovers but out-rebounded F&M 34-29.

Gettysburg returns to Centennial Conference action on Saturday, when it visits Haverford College for a 3 p.m. tip-off.