READING, Pa. – Senior center Tanner Kirkpatrick scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Gettysburg College men's basketball team earned a 68-61 victory at Albright College Friday afternoon in the consolation game of the Albright Crowne Plaza Holiday Tournament.
Kirkpatrick shot a sizzling 9-for-10 from the field while earning a spot on the All-Tournament Team. He surpassed his previous career-high by three points while posting the highest-scoring output of the season by a Bullet. Kirkpatrick, who scored 16 of his points in the second half, also logged his second double-double of the season and the third of his career.
It was a tale of two halves for the Bullets (3-7), who used a stingy defensive performance to open up a five-point halftime lead (25-20). The Orange and Blue then erupted for 43 points in the second half, when they shot a scalding 66.7 percent (12-for-18) from the floor. Gettysburg shot 50.0 percent for the game – its second-best mark of the season.
Senior forward Cody Kiefer added 14 points, six rebounds, and four assists for the Bullets. Freshman guard Nick Antolini scored 10 points in his first collegiate start while sophomore forward Mateus Maccieri contributed a career-high nine rebounds. Freshman guard Danny Duffey chipped in with seven points and four assists.
DeJuan Smith scored 16 points to lead Albright (5-7), which was held to 29.8 percent shooting.
It was the first meeting between the two teams since Gettysburg's 62-60 win in the championship game of the Albright Tournament on Jan. 3, 2009.
The Bullets trailed just once on the afternoon, when it was 3-2 less than two minutes into the game. Gettysburg outscored Albright 10-5 to start the game as Kirkpatrick had the hot hand early, scoring eight of the team's first 10 points. He converted a conventional 3-point play with 17:14 on the clock, then connected from beyond the arc to give his team its five-point edge.
Gettysburg dug in defensively midway through the half, holding the Lions scoreless for nearly eight minutes. In the meantime, Duffey and freshman guard Nick Lord nailed back-to-back 3's to cap an 11-2 run, handing the Bullets their biggest lead of the half at 21-11 with 7:13 showing.
Albright climbed back into it with a 6-0 spurt before both sides hit a dry spell. Neither team scored for over four minutes before Duffey connected on a pair of free throws with 42 seconds left and senior guard Pete Christ dropped in a lay-up with nine seconds to go. However, Fred Rowles canned a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the half to snap Albright's drought and make it a five-point game (25-20) at the intermission.
The Lions hit another triple just 12 seconds into the second half to pull to within two, and it was an extremely tight game for the next 12 minutes. The Bullets nudged their lead to four on five occasions, the last coming on a 3-pointer from Lord with 10:20 left that made it 38-34. But Albright answered with four straight points to tie the game for the first time since the opening tip.
Kirkpatrick responded with a big 3-pointer with 9:36 left to make it 41-38, kicking off a decisive 11-2 Bullet run. Kirkpatrick and Kiefer scored all 11 points along the way, and a pair of Kirkpatrick free throws made it 49-40 with 4:39 remaining.
Albright pulled to within six (50-44) with 3:46 left, but Antolini splashed in a 3-pointer with 3:23 remaining to kick off a 7-2 spurt that handed the Bullets their largest lead of the game. Kirkpatrick and Kiefer capped the surge with a pair of lay-ups to make it 57-46 with 2:07 showing.
The Lions used a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to six with 1:25 left, but that's as close as they would get. The Bullets salted their victory away at the foul line, where they went 9-for-10 in the final minute. Antolini went 4-for-4 at the charity stripe during the stretch while Kirkpatrick was 3-for-4.