Box Score
YORK, Pa. – Junior guard Kevin Whaley drained a three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining, and Gettysburg was unable to get off a shot following a timeout as the Bullets suffered a heartbreaking 67-66 loss at undefeated York (Pa.) College Tuesday in a non-conference game at Charles Wolf Gymnasium.
Whaley, who scored a game-high 24 points, pulled up from the left elbow and before knocking down the go-ahead bucket in transition, giving York (5-0) only its second lead of the game. The Bullets called timeout with 8.9 seconds to go, but lost the ball under the basket as time expired.
Junior forward Kevin Kennedy (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) led Gettysburg (0-3), scoring a career-high 23 points while shooting 5-of-8 from three-point range. Junior center Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) added 18 points, eight rebounds, and six assists while sophomore guard Brendan Trelease (Union, N.J./Roselle Catholic) contributed career-highs of eight points and seven rebounds. Senior guard Brendan Hager (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) handed out five assists.
York, which trailed by as much as 15 early in the second half, received a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds from senior guard Nick Brady while freshman guard Jeremy Skoloda scored 11 points off the bench.
Gettysburg used some torrid outside shooting to build an 11-point halftime lead. The Bullets drained 8-of-14 three-pointers in the opening stanza, when Kennedy scored 16 of his points and was 4-for-6 from distance. Gettysburg's eight treys equaled the team's most in one half since the second half of its 80-73 Centennial Conference semifinal loss at Johns Hopkins University on Feb. 24, 2007.
Kennedy's first three of the night gave the Bullets the lead (3-2) until Whaley's dagger. An 8-0 Gettysburg run made it 8-2 three minutes into the contest, prompting a Spartan timeout. Gettysburg drilled two more treys in the opening six minutes, and a triple from Trelease made it 16-7 with 14:11 on the clock.
Gettysburg's lead hit double digits (38-28) on a driving lay-up from Kennedy with 5:14 left in the half, and a straightaway three-pointer from Kennedy put the Bullets up 31-20 with 4:43 left. After York cut the deficit to six, the visitors closed the period with a 7-2 spurt, and two Powers free throws with 1.5 seconds left gave Gettysburg a 40-29 lead at the break.
A pair of Powers buckets to open the second half gave the Bullets their largest lead (44-29) of the game. However, the Spartans responded with an 11-4 run, pulling to within single digits on a Skoloda three-pointer that made it 48-40.
York whittled it down to a three-point game (52-49) after a pair of Skoloda foul shots with 8:50 showing, but Powers ended a 4:08 Gettysburg scoreless drought with a pair of free throws at the 8:01 mark. A three-pointer from Brady made it a two-point game, but Kennedy answered for the Bullets, banking home a deep trey from the top of the arc to give his team a 59-52 advantage.
In the meantime, the Spartan defense held the Bullets to three field goals in the last 12:48 while staging its comeback. A Todd Maciejewski lay-up made it a one-possession game (51-48) with 2:27 to go, and York crept to within two (65-63) after Whaley knocked down two foul shots with 1:24 left.
Kennedy answered for the Bullets with a driving layup after taking a beautiful pass into the lane from senior guard Andrew Bohan (Smithsburg, Md./Smithsburg). Brady cut it to one (65-64) on a free throw with 32 ticks showing before the Spartans put Bohan on the line with 23 seconds left. After making the first, Bohan missed the second, and Brady came down the rebound, setting up Whaley's heroics. It was the Bullets first miss at the free-throw after starting 13-for-13.
Gettysburg was held to one three-pointer in the second half, finishing 1-for-9. The Bullets shot 44.0 percent for the game while holding the Spartans to 35.7 percent shooting.
The Bullets pick up their schedule Dec. 2, when they host Johns Hopkins in their Centennial Conference opener starting at 7 p.m.
