Box Score

SWARTHMORE, Pa. – Swarthmore used a late 10-0 run to break open a close game and the homestanding Garnet handed the Gettysburg College men's basketball team its first Centennial Conference (CC) loss, topping the Bullets 71-62 at Tarble Pavilion Thursday evening.
 
In a match-up that featured two sides locked in a three-way tie for first place in the conference standings entering the night, neither team led by more than six until the final three minutes.
 
Senior center Kevin Gladstone (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) led the Bullets (8-3, 3-1 CC) with 15 points despite being limited to 24 minutes due to foul trouble. Junior forward Cody Kiefer (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) posted his third double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists while sophomore guard Alex Kaslander (Verona, N.J./Verona) added 10 points off the bench.
 
Matt Brennan shot 7-for-9 from 3-point range and led Swarthmore (10-1, 4-0 CC) with a game-high 26 points. Zack Yonda added 16 points for the Garnet while Robbie Walsh contributed eight points and nine rebounds.
 
Gettysburg trailed just 51-50 with 5:20 left after Kiefer converted a pair of free throws before the Garnet put together its 10-0 spurt. Gladstone pulled the Bullets to within nine (61-52) on a reverse lay-up with 1:16 to go, but Swarthmore sealed its win at the foul line, where it went 10-for-12 over the final 1:13.
 
A back-and-forth first half featured three ties and nine lead changes, with neither side leading by more than six. A 3-pointer from Kiefer put the Bullets up 19-16 with 13:13 on the clock before Swarthmore assembled a 10-2 run to go up 26-21 with 5:43 to go in the opening period.
 
The Garnet nudged its lead to six just over a minute later, but Gettysburg ended the half on a 10-3 surge, capped by a put-back from junior forward Tanner Kirkpatrick (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) just before the buzzer, to assume a 34-33 halftime advantage.
 
The Bullets led for the opening four and a half minutes of the second period before Swarthmore took the lead for good. A pair of free throws from sophomore guard Matt England (Warrington, Pa./Holy Ghost Prep) handed Gettysburg a 40-37 lead with 16:53 left before an 8-0 run gave the hosts a five-point lead with 13:18 to go. The Bullets would pull to within one twice before Swarthmore's late run.
 
The Orange and Blue return to action on Saturday, when they host Haverford College in a Centennial Conference match-up starting at 3 p.m.