THE FACTS
Swarthmore (19-8) 84, Gettysburg (19-7) 72
What: Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball semifinal
When: Friday, Feb. 3
Where: Gettysburg, Pa.
THE SKINNY STORY
Swarthmore withstood an early 11-4 start by Gettysburg and eventually used a 25-9 run to open up a double-digit lead late in the first half, lifting the fourth-seeded Garnet to an upset of the top-seeded Bullets in the 2024 Centennial Conference (CC) semifinals.
THE LEADERS
•
Nate Williams (Morganville, N.J./St. John Vianney) led the Bullets with a career-high 27 points, including hitting 10 of his 11 free throws.
FOR THE FOES
• Vinny DeAngelo led for Garnet players in double figures with 23 points to go with six rebounds.
THE REST OF THE STORY
• Baskets from four different players helped Gettysburg open up an 11-4 lead 6 minutes, 23 seconds into the contest. Swarthmore countered, however, with five straight points to close to within two just 37 seconds later. The Bullet lead pushed back out to five when
Aidan Mess (Brookeville, Md./Mt. St. Joseph) hit a pull-up jumper to make it 16-11 with 10:27 remaining. A Vinny DeAngelo 3-pointer on the other end, however, started the game-changing run. A Nyle Coleman 3-pointer with 8:15 remaining gave the visitors their first lead at 18-16. The lead swelled to 36-25 on two Devin Burger free throws with 1:33 showing before Gettysburg closed the half on a 5-2 stretch.
• A
Nate Williams three-point play at the 17:10 mark of the second half continued the momentum and trimmed the margin to 38-33 before a
Ryan McKeon (Landenberg, Pa./Sanford [Del.]) jumper made it a three-point game nearly a minute later. Swarthmore stretched the lead back to nine, however, with an 8-2 run over the next 3:18. After the Bullets closed the deficit once again to four on a Williams steal-and-three-point-play with 12:27 remaining the Garnet scored the next six to make it a double-digit game again. A DeAngelo 1-and-1 extended the lead to 61-47 with 7:52 to play but Gettysburg had another run in it, pulling to within 63-56 with 5:09 on the clock. The lead got pushed back out to 13 with 1:53 showing but an 8-2 burst made it a 76-69 game on a Williams trey with 1:12 to play but the hosts could get no closer.
THE INSIDE STORY
• Swarthmore will once again travel to Johns Hopkins for the championship game on Sunday at 12 p.m. It is the sixth straight year the two teams have played for the title.
• The Garnet finished with a 54-32 advantage on the glass.
•
Aidan Mess added eight points, five rebounds and three blocked shots for the Bullets.
NEXT UP
Gettysburg will have to wait until Monday to see if its resume is good enough for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
