Box Score

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Gettysburg College men's basketball team showed its resolve once again, erasing an eight-point second-half deficit, but dropped a 63-55 decision to Randolph-Macon College in its final non-conference game of the regular season Saturday afternoon in Bream Gymnasium.

It was the third game in a row that the Bullets (4-7) rallied as they also came from 12 points down to defeat Berry College before cutting a 22-point deficit down to three in a loss to Richard Stockton College in a pair of games played at Daytona Beach, Fla. on Dec. 20-21.

Sophomore guard Sango Amolo (Falls Church, Va./McLean) led the Bullets with 14 points while freshman forward Cody Kiefer (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) added 13 points. Freshman forward Tanner Kirkpatrick (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) contributed nine points while junior guard Sean Gordon (Broomall, Pa./Malvern Prep) had seven points, five rebounds, five assists, and four steals.

Andre Simon scored 22 points to lead the Yellow Jackets (7-4) while Connor Sullivan added 16 points and six assists.

Randolph-Macon never trailed in the opening half after an 8-1 run to open the game. But the Bullets answered with an 8-3 spurt, capped by a conventional 3-point play from Kiefer and a trey from freshman guard Pete Christ (Pittstown, N.J./Delaware Valley Regional), to pull two within two midway through the half.

Gettysburg, playing for the first time in 14 days, trailed by seven before another mini-run brought them to within a bucket once again. A 9-4 surge, highlighted by a pair of acrobatic lay-ups from Kirkpatrick and capped by an Amolo 3-pointer, made it 22-20 with 4:16 on the clock. The Yellow Jackets took a 26-21 lead into halftime intermission.

The visitors led 33-25 with 17:42 left before the Bullets embarked on their comeback, powered by a 17-7 run over a 5:51 stretch. Christ tied it with a highlight-reel reverse lay-up in traffic before Gordon gave the Orange and Blue their first lead of the game, coming up with a steal and taking it in himself for a lay-up to make it 42-40 with 10:58 showing.

Gordon canned a 3-ball from the right elbow with 9:31 left to make it 45-42, but Randolph-Macon scored the next four points to take the lead for good. Gettysburg would trim the deficit to one on three occasions and trailed by only two with less than a minute left, when Amolo sunk two free throws to make it 57-55 with 31 seconds remaining. But the Yellow Jackets held on by making their final seven foul shots and going 6-for-6 at the charity stripe in the last 23 seconds.

The Bullets shot a season-high 81.0% (17-for-21) at the foul line.

Gettysburg picks up its schedule on Wednesday, when it hosts Ursinus College at 7 p.m. in a Centennial Conference match-up.