Box Score

HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Gettysburg College men's basketball team used a stifling defensive performance to beat Haverford College 67-32 in a Centennial Conference (CC) tilt on the road Saturday afternoon.
 
With their win and Swarthmore's loss to 11th-ranked Franklin & Marshall, the Bullets (15-6, 10-4 CC) are now tied with Swarthmore for second place in the conference standings. Gettysburg holds a two-and-a-half-game lead over Dickinson and Johns Hopkins, who are tied for fourth.
 
The Bullets swept their season series with the Fords (4-16, 2-11 CC), who were held to 23.1 percent shooting. Haverford's 32 points marked the lowest scoring output by a Gettysburg opponent since a 44-22 win over Lehigh on Jan. 4, 1964.
 
Junior forward Tanner Kirkpatrick (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) led the Bullets with a season-high 16 points and seven rebounds in just 12 minutes off the bench while junior forward Cody Kiefer (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) added 14 points and six boards. Sophomore forward Cam Stewart (Sydney, Australia/Newington College) and senior center Kevin Gladstone (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) added eight points apiece while sophomore forward Matt England (Warrington, Pa./Holy Ghost Prep) grabbed eight rebounds.
 
The Bullet offense sputtered early, scoring just one point over the opening five minutes as Haverford opened on an 8-1 run. But that's when the Bullets dug in defensively and went on a run of their own. Gettysburg scored 12 unanswered points while holding the Fords scoreless over a six-minute stretch. A 3-pointer from Kirkpatrick put the Bullets up 13-8 with 11:16 on the first-half clock.
 
The Fords answered with the next six points, but Gettysburg ended the half strong, outscoring the hosts 17-4. Freshman guard Alec Warren (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) kicked off the run with a triple and England capped it with a 3-ball at the buzzer to put the Bullets up 32-18 at the break.
 
Gettysburg gradually continued to pull away in the second half, outscoring the Fords 15-2 over the opening 7:50 of the stanza to open up a 47-20 lead. The margin would hit 30 (53-23) on a Kirkpatrick lay-up with 8:44 left and reached as much as 39 on a lay-up from sophomore forward Rahmi Halaby (Media, Pa./Penncrest) with 2:11 remaining.
 
The Bullets return to action on Wednesday, when they host Dickinson College at 8 p.m. in another Centennial Conference affair.