Box Score
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Sophomore center
Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) scored a game-high 20 points while senior guard
Chris Nevolo (Neshanic Station, N.J./Somerville) poured in a career-high 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting as No. 25 Gettysburg topped Johns Hopkins University 71-62 in a Centennial Conference tilt Monday evening in Bream Gymnasium.
The Bullets (13-3, 8-2 CC) won their 18th straight home game and are now tied with Franklin & Marshall for first place in the conference standings. The Diplomats defeated Ursinus Monday night while McDaniel, which came into the game tied with F&M and Gettysburg for first place, lost at Dickinson.
Gettysburg broke the game open over the final eight minutes of the first half, closing the period on a 26-5 run to turn a 10-point deficit into an 11-point halftime advantage.
Nevolo, who topped his previous career-high by six points, scored 11 of his points in the second half, none bigger than a pair of buckets 53 seconds apart that helped quell a late Hopkins rally.
Senior guard
Dan Capkin (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) added nine points for the Bullets while sophomore forward
Kevin Kennedy (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) posted eight points off the bench. Senior forward
Joe Spierenburg (Chambersburg, Pa./St. Maria Goretti [Md.]) led the Bullets in assists (four) and blocks (three).
Sophomore forward
Mike Henrici, who played for the Bullets last season before transferring to Johns Hopkins, led the Blue Jays (11-6, 6-4 CC) with 15 points. Senior center Andrew Farber-Miller had 13 points while senior guard Collin Kamm and senior forward Phil Beggans had 10 points apiece.
The Bullets sputtered offensively in the early going, scoring just 12 points over the opening 12 minutes as Johns Hopkins bolted to a 22-12 lead. But that's when Gettysburg erupted for a 17-0 run over a 4:43 stretch, with four different players scoring along the way. Powers gave his team its first lead (23-22) of the night with a pair of free throws with 4:27 to go, and Spierenburg capped the surge with a lay-up to put the Bullets up by seven with 3:10 on the clock.
The Blue Jays trailed by only four with 1:58 left in the opening half after Beggans three-pointer, but sophomore center
Chip Naddaff (Randolph, N.J./Randolph) answered with his first collegiate trey, kicking off a 7-0 spurt to end the half and the Bullets carried a 38-27 lead into the locker room.
Gettysburg continued to pull away in the second half, outscoring Hopkins 10-3 to open the stanza and open up an 18-point advantage (48-30) with 14:10 left following back-to-back buckets from Capkin. But the Blue Jays used a 7-0 run to reduce the deficit to single digits (50-41) with 10:36 showing.
Johns Hopkins got as close as five (59-54) with 3:55 to go after Beggans scored five straight points on a pair of free throws and a three-pointer. But that's when Nevolo came up big for the Bullets. His straightaway three-pointer made it 62-54 with 3:19 left, and his driving lay-up with 2:26 remaining just beat the shot clock and gave his team a 64-56 lead.
The Bullets sealed the win at the foul line, making seven of their final 10 free throws inside the last 1:54.
Gettysburg returns to the hardwood on Wednesday, when it visits McDaniel at 8 p.m.
