BALTIMORE – The Gettysburg College men's basketball team held Johns Hopkins to 20 points below their season scoring average, but the undefeated Blue Jays pulled away late for a 68-57 Centennial Conference (CC) victory over the Bullets Thursday evening in Goldfarb Gym.
 
The Bullets (1-4, 0-2 CC) held the lead early in the second half and trailed by only two with 9:27 left. However, that's when Hopkins (6-0, 2-0 CC) used a 12-1 run to break the game open.
 
The Blue Jays entered the night averaging 88.4 points per game but were held to under 70 for the first time this season. Hopkins' 67 points were a season-low.
 
Sophomore guard Nick Lord (Millersville, Pa./Penn Manor) led Gettysburg with a game-high 18 points and knocked down 3-of-4 3-pointers. Making his first career start, sophomore guard Joey Carroll (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) added career-highs of nine points and six rebounds while senior forward Matt England (Warrington, Pa./Holy Ghost Prep), the leading rebound in the Centennial Conference entering the night, grabbed eight boards.
 
Kyle Doran shot 7-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range, to lead Johns Hopkins with 17 points. Four other Blue Jays scored in double figures, including Harry O'Neil, who contributed 12 points and eight rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench.
 
The Bullets led just once in the opening half, when Carroll dropped in a fast-break lay-up 39 seconds into the contest. The Blue Jays used some hot outside shooting to take control early, nailing a trio of 3-pointers in the opening four minutes to assume a 13-5 lead.
 
Gettysburg rallied with a 6-1 spurt to slice the deficit to three, as England finished off a backdoor pass down the lane from sophomore guard Danny Duffey (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Lower Moreland) to make it 14-11. The Bullets came all the way back to tie it (20-20) when Lord connected on a 3-ball from the left corner with 9:18 showing.
 
The Blue Jays had an answer once again, however, using a 12-4 run to push their lead back to eight. But the Bullets ended the half with a 5-1 surge, capped by a pair of free throws from Carroll with 3.9 ticks showing, to make it 33-28 at the intermission.
 
Lord led all scorers with 12 points in the opening half, when he was 4-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. Doran led the Blue Jays with 10 points at the break.
 
Gettysburg came out hot to start the second period, and a 10-0 run gave the Bullets their first lead (40-38) of the half following a triple from Carroll with 13:42 on the clock. Lord kicked off the splurge with a 3-pointer, Duffey followed with a lay-up, and junior center Luke Cooper (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) backed down his defender for additional bucket.
 
The Jays came back to score the next five points, however, to take the lead for good. Gettysburg twice pulled to within two, the last coming on a conventional 3-point play from freshman center Avery Close (Phoenixville, Pa./Phoenixville) with 9:28 remaining that made it 49-47. But that's when Hopkins embarked on its game-breaking run to assume a commanding 61-48 advantage with 5:03 left. The Bullets were unable to get closer than 10 the rest of the way.
 
Gettysburg tied its season-high for field-goal percentage, connecting on 46.7 percent of its shots. The Bullets out-rebounded the Blue Jays 34-28.
 
The Orange and Blue return to the hardwood on Saturday, when they host Washington College in another Centennial Conference affair starting at 1 p.m.