It was a big day for the Gettysburg College men's basketball program.
Head coach George Petrie became the program's all-time wins leader and senior guard Cory Weissman (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) returned to the court for the first time in three years after suffering a stroke as the Bullets defeated Washington College 83-69 on Senior Day in a Centennial Conference match-up in Bream Gymnasium.
In addition, Gettysburg's 2000-01 and 2001-02 Centennial Conference champion men's basketball teams were honored at halftime.
Freshman guard Joe Emerusabe (Derwood, Md./Magruder) scored a game-high 20 points and shot 11-for-11 at the free throw line, junior center Christian Bors (Lanham, Md./Sidwell Friends [D.C.]) posted 18 points and eight rebounds, and junior forward Alex Zurn (Brookeville, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal) finished with 16 points, six rebounds, and seven assists for the Bullets (10-13, 7-9 CC). But the day belonged to Petrie and Weissman.
Petrie broke a coaching record that had stood for 57 years, surpassing the legendary Hen Bream '24, whose name Gettysburg's gym bears. Bream led the Bullets to a 321-205 from 1927-55 while Petrie has gone 322-265 since taking over in the 1989-90 season.
One of three seniors to be honored before the game along with Tim Lang (Boothwyn, Pa./Garnet Valley) and Brendan Trelease (Union, N.J./Roselle Catholic), Weissman received his first collegiate start and took the floor to a raucous ovation when he was introduced. He came out of the game after the opening tap, but when the Bullets opened up an 82-63 lead with 52 seconds left, Petrie gave him the nod.
With 16 seconds to go, Weissman drew a foul off an inbound pass with the Bullets in the double bonus. His first shot rimmed out, but his second attempt found nothing but net, drawing a thunderous reaction from a large and spirited crowd. It was the first point of his collegiate career after appearing in three games during Gettysburg's Centennial Conference championship season in 2008-09.
Weissman's stroke was caused by an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), the same condition experienced by Indiana Pacer guard A.J. Price in 2004.
Gettysburg trailed by as much as seven in the opening half but rallied to take a 25-20 lead with 5:23 left in the period on a conventional 3-point play from Emerusabe, who tied his season-high. Emerusabe restored the Bullets five-point lead with a trey at the 2:11 mark, but the Shoremen closed the period with a 7-2 spurt, capped by a coast-to-coast lay-up from John Weston at the buzzer to knot the score at 36-all.
It was the second year in a row that the Bullets hit 30 or more foul shots in a game against Washington, as they also went 32-for-43 in a win over the Shoremen last season.
Kevin Breslin scored 13 points to lead Washington (13-10, 9-7 CC).
The Bullets are still alive for a Centennial Conference playoff berth but trail Muhlenberg and Washington by two games for the fifth and final playoff spot with two league games remaining.