Box Score

LANCASTER, Pa. – Gettysburg shot 62.5 percent, including a red-hot 68.8 percent from 3-point range, and the Bullets advanced to their third straight Centennial Conference (CC) championship game, defeating Washington (Md.) College 91-78 in CC semifinals Saturday afternoon in the Mayser Center at tournament final four host Franklin & Marshall College.

The Bullets (15-10), who connected on 11-of-16 3-point attempts, led by as much as 22 after a 21-0 run that spanned halves. But using a full-court press, Washington (13-10) rallied with a 16-0 run midway through the stanza. The Shoremen got as close as five with just under 10 minutes left, but Gettysburg held on down the stretch, making eight of their final 12 free throws.

Gettysburg will take on the winner of the other semifinal between Franklin & Marshall and Muhlenberg in the conference title game on Sunday at 3 p.m. back at F&M. The winner of the game will receive an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III tournament.

The win marked victory No. 298 for Gettysburg head coach George Petrie.

The Bullets received 19 points apiece from junior forward Kevin Kennedy (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) and sophomore guard Brendan Trelease (Union, N.J./Roselle Catholic), with Trelease shooting 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and notching a career-high in scoring. Kennedy was 4-for-7 from long range and grabbed five rebounds. 
 
Senior guard Brendan Hager (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) also turned in an outstanding showing for the Bullets, scoring 10 points and dishing out a career-high 11 assists for his first career double-double. Hager, who was 4-for-4 from the field, became the first Bullet to post double digits in assists since Kevin Pearson had 10 in an 89-83 win at Lehigh University on Dec. 23, 1992, and his 11 assists were the most since John Gyulai also had 11 in a 75-60 loss against Drexel University on Jan. 19, 1974.

Junior center Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) posted 16 points and six rebounds despite playing only 20 minutes due to foul trouble while freshman guard Alex Zurn (Brookeville, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal) added 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go with five boards.

The Bullets 91 points marked the team's highest scoring output since their 95-87 victory over Salem State on March 7, 2008 in the second round of the Division III tournament.

Gettysburg is now 11-6 all-time in the Centennial Conference playoffs and has won its opening-round game in each of the past four years.

Sophomore guard Kevin Breslin paced Washington with 19 points and eight rebounds while senior forward Alan Kines added 18 points and six rebounds. Sophomore guard Sal Schittino contributed 18 points off the bench, shooting 4-of-8 from 3-point territory.

The Bullets started the game cold, making just three of the first 13 shots. Schittino, the hero of Washington's win over Gettysburg the last time the two teams met, capped an 8-0 Shoreman run with a 3 from the left corner, making it 18-10 with 11:55 left and prompting a Bullet timeout.

Washington pushed its lead back to eight (20-12) after a Doug Holcombe long jumper with 9:00 left, but the Bullets got back into it with an 11-2 run. Trelease kicked off the rally with his first trey of the afternoon, and Powers capped it with a driving lay-up at the 5:53 mark that gave his team its first lead (23-22) since the game's opening minutes.

Powers scored the team's next five points and ended up scoring nine in a row for the Bullets. His fastbreak lay-up and ensuing free throw with 3:54 put Gettysburg up 28-24; however, he picked up his second foul 12 seconds later attempting to draw a charge and had to sit the remainder of the half.

After the Shoremen closed to within one, Gettysburg ended the period on an 8-0 run. Trelease nailed back-to-back 3's before Hager dropped in a lay-up with 54 ticks showing, giving his team a 36-27 halftime advantage.

Powers paced Gettysburg in the opening half with 14 points while Trelease added 12 points, shooting 3-for-4 from downtown. Hager handed out seven assists in the period.

Gettysburg extended its run in the second half, scoring the first 13 points of the period to open up a 49-27 advantage with 15:29 to go. The Bullets engineered the entire run without Powers, who went to the bench with his third foul 28 seconds into the half.

A trey from Kennedy made it 54-33 with 12:37 to go, but that's when the Shoremen used their 16-0 run, capped by a 3 from sophomore guard Mark DeBoy that cut the deficit to 54-49 with 9:37 showing. Breslin scored eight of Washington's points during the rally.

The Shoremen trailed by seven and nearly forced a shot-clock violation with 8:17 to go, but Zurn buried a long trey from the left elbow to beat the clock and put the Bullets up 10. Gettysburg received two other buckets with the shot clock winding down in the next several minutes, getting a reverse lay-up from Powers with 7:27 to go that made it 65-55 and a 3 in the left corner from Trelease that pushed Gettysburg's advantage to 68-55 with 6:26 left.

Powers fouled out with 5:57 left, but Washington was unable to get closer than seven the rest of the way, the last coming on a Schittino 3 with 1:36 showing that made it 80-73. Another Schittino 3 made it 86-78 with 47 seconds left, but Trelease connected on a pair of free throws two seconds later, and the Shoremen missed their final seven shots.

Gettysburg held Washington to 38.0 percent shooting, including a 27.8 percent mark (5-for-18) from 3-point range.