THE FACTS
Gettysburg (19-6, 15-3 CC) 79, Muhlenberg (8-17, 7-11 CC) 53
What: Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball game
When: Saturday, Feb. 17
Where: Gettysburg, Pa.
THE SKINNY STORY
The day started with Gettysburg one game behind Johns Hopkins in the Centennial Conference standings with one game to play. The Bullets found themselves in a 36-34 hole at halftime after Giovanni Rubino barely beat the first-half buzzer with a 3-pointer. Gettysburg then outscored Muhlenberg 45-17 after halftime to pull away and secure a 79-53 victory forge a tie at the top of the final Centennial Conference standings. That tie happened because as that second-second half surge was starting in Gettysburg, Swarthmore scored a game-winning layup in Baltimore with 1.9 seconds remaining to defeat the Blue Jays 71-70, giving the Bullets the top seed and hosting rights throughout the conference tournament.
THE LEADERS
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Ryan McKeon (Landenberg, Pa./Sanford [Del.]) led the Bullets with 16 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and five blocked shots.
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Jordan Stafford (Galloway, N.J./St. Joseph Hammonton) added 16 points of his own to go with five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
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Akim Joseph (Pout-au-Prince, Haiti/Notre Dame Fairfield [Conn.]) added 15 that included a pair of show-stopping dunks 30 seconds apart to put the exclamation point on the game. He also blocked three shots.
FOR THE FOES
• Jayson Williams-Johnson led the Mules with 16 points.
THE REST OF THE STORY
• The first half featured five ties and 11 lead changes. Neither team held a lead larger than three points until three different Mules accounted for a 7-0 run that gave the visitors a 27-22 lead with 5:56 to play in the half. Two free throws from
Nate Williams (Morganville, N.J./St. John Vianney) and an
Aidan Mess (Brookeville, Md./Mt. St. Joseph) layup closed the margin to one just 50 seconds later but Muhlenberg pushed the lead back out to five. Trailing 33-28,
Ray Zamloot (Caldwell, N.J./James Caldwell) canned a 3-pointer and then
Jordan Stafford hit from deep for a 34-33 lead with 25 seconds left. Giovanni Rubino just got off a 3-pointer from the top of the arc that was ruled good on the floor then stood as called after a lengthy video review for the two-point halftime lead.
• Jayson Williams-Johnson extended the lead to four with 18:20 on the clock but
Ryan McKeon responded with a dunk, sparking the Bullets to a 13-0 burst over the next four minutes. Stafford and McKeon combined for 10 of the 13 points. The run extended to 20-4 on an
Akim Joseph traditional three-point play that made it a 54-42 game with 11:22 to play. Leading 63-47 with the shot clock running low, Joseph drove baseline and slammed it home with 5:36 to play before then getting a steal on the other end and taking it all the way for another jam 30 seconds later for a 67-47 lead. Williams-Johnson finally snapped a 6-miunte, 25-second drought from the floor with a layup at the 4:46 mark. A McKeon putback with 3:48 remaining made it 71-51 and the lead didn't dip under 20 the rest of the way.
THE INSIDE STORY
• Despite finishing tied for first in the standings, Gettysburg earns the top seed by virtue of its season sweep of Johns Hopkins. The Bullets and Blue Jays will each host a semifinal on Friday. Sunday's championship game will be played at the highest remaining seed.
• With Dickinson's victory over Ursinus, the Red Devils forced a play-in game against Muhlenberg for the sixth and final playoff spot. That game will take place on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Allentown with the winner advancing to Wednesday's first-round game at third-seeded Franklin & Marshall. Swarthmore hosts Ursinus in the other first-round game.
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Nate Williams added 11 points and eight rebounds to go with three assists.
NEXT UP
Game time on Friday is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m.
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