Box Score

HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Gettysburg College men's basketball team registered its highest scoring output in over two years, topping Haverford College 85-58 for a big Centennial Conference (CC) road victory Saturday afternoon.
 
The Bullets (12-11, 8-8 CC) snapped a five-game losing streak and now find themselves two games in front of Muhlenberg College and Ursinus College for the fifth and final conference playoff spot. Muhlenberg lost to Franklin & Marshall College while Ursinus fell at Washington College on Saturday. Gettysburg also trails McDaniel College by one game for fourth place in the conference standings.
 
A balanced scoring effort lifted Gettysburg, which recorded its highest scoring total since an 86-61 victory over Haverford on Jan. 19, 2013. Junior center Kevin Gladstone (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) scored a game-high 18 points and dished out six assists while sophomore forward Tanner Kirkpatrick (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) posted 16 points. Freshman guard Alex Kaslander (Verona, N.J./Verona) added his first career double-double with season-highs of 12 points and 10 rebounds to go with a season-best four assists, and senior guard Sean Gordon (Broomall, Pa./Malvern Prep) added nine points, eight rebounds, and four assists.
 
Eleven of the 12 Bullets who entered the game scored a point.
 
Gibby Graves scored 14 points to lead Haverford (5-18, 3-13 CC).
 
It was a close game in the early going, as there were two ties and four lead changes over the opening 4:47. But the Bullets used a 10-2 run midway through the half to open up some breathing room.
 
An 8-3 Ford spurt pulled the hosts to within three (25-22) with 8:13 remaining in the opening period. But that's when Gettysburg scored 12 unanswered points to push its advantage to 15. Kirkpatrick accounted for seven points of the outburst and capped the run with a conventional 3-point play to make it 37-22 with 2:08 showing. The Bullets carried a 39-27 lead into the locker room
 
Haverford crept to within seven (46-39) after a steal and dunk from Graves with 15:45 to go. But that's when Gettysburg took over the game with a 19-3 run over the next 6:35. Senior guard Joe Emerusabe (Derwood, Md./Magruder) kicked off the decisive stretch with back-to-back buckets, and added a put-back later in the surge. Gladstone also got into the act, scoring seven of the last nine points of the run. His free throw with 9:10 left made it 65-42.
 
The Fords closed to within 59-40 with 6:56 remaining, but Gettysburg settled any doubt with an 11-2 run that swelled the visitors' lead to 28.
 
The Bullets shot 58.8 percent from the field, marking the team's second-best shooting performance of the season behind only its 59.3 percent effort in its 83-77 win over Haverford back on Jan. 13.
 
Gettysburg closes out the regular season with a pair of Centennial Conference home games. The Bullets host Franklin & Marshall at 8 p.m. on Wednesday before taking on McDaniel at 3 p.m. on Saturday.