Box Score

LANCASTER, Pa. – The Gettysburg College men's basketball team saw its season come to a close in the Centennial Conference (CC) semifinals with a 74-63 loss at 25th-ranked Franklin & Marshall College Friday evening at the Mayser Center.
 
Sophomore guard Alex Kaslander (Verona, N.J./Verona) scored a career-high 21 points and grabbed six rebounds for the fourth-seeded Bullets (18-9), who matched their best record since the 2008-09 season.
 
Top-seeded Franklin & Marshall (21-5) jumped to a 12-point halftime lead and led by at least nine the rest of the way. The Diplomats move on to the Centennial Conference championship game to face second-seeded Swarthmore College, a 77-73 winner over third-seeded Dickinson College in first semifinal of the night.
 
Senior center Kevin Gladstone (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) added 17 points on eight rebounds for the Bullets. He shot 11-for-12 at the foul line and finished his career with 818 points. Sophomore forward Cam Stewart (Sydney, Australia/Newington College) added 11 points off the bench for Gettysburg.
 
Four Diplomats scored in double figures, with Cedric Moune leading the way with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Brandon Federici contributed 16 points while Hunter Eggers and Matthew Tate netted 15 and 14 points, respectively.
 
The Bullets came out of the gates hot, starting the contest on a 7-0 run, with Kaslander scoring five early points. But the Diplomats came back with a 9-2 surge to pull even with 15:05 on the clock.
 
A Gladstone lay-up made it 13-9 in favor of the Bullets, but that's when the hosts ran off a 9-0 run to take the lead for good and open up an 18-13 advantage with 10:56 showing. Stewart answered with a 3-pointer for Gettysburg to make it a two-point game, but the Bullets would hit a cold stretch offensively, as they were held scoreless over a five-minute stretch.
 
The Diplomats pushed their lead into double figures (30-19) with 2:00 to go, and a 3-pointer from Eggers at the buzzer made it a 33-21 game at the break.
 
Kaslander pulled Gettysburg to within nine (35-26) on a 3-pointer with 17:35 left, and a conventional 3-point play from junior forward Cody Kiefer (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) with 14:37 left made it 42-33. But F&M gradually pulled away midway through the second half, extending its lead to 16 on three occasions, the last coming with 6:21 remaining. The Bullets were unable to trim the deficit under 10 until the final minute.
 
Gettysburg was making its 14th Centennial Conference playoff appearance in the last 16 years and its second-consecutive berth in the CC semifinals.