GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Bullets shot a season-best 64.2 percent from the field and the Gettysburg College men's basketball team clinched a Centennial Conference (CC) playoff berth with a 76-62 victory over Franklin & Marshall College Wednesday evening in Bream Gym.
 
With the win, Gettysburg (13-11, 9-8 CC) moved into a tie with McDaniel College for fourth place in the Centennial Conference standings. The Bullets and Green Terror play their regular season finale in Gettysburg on Saturday in a game that will decide fourth place and the right to host next Wednesday's Centennial Conference first-round game.
 
The Bullets led nearly the entire game and used a run late in the first half to open up a 39-24 halftime advantage. The Diplomats were unable to draw closer than nine in the second half.
 
Junior center Kevin Gladstone scored a game-high 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting for Gettysburg, which posted its best shooting performance since hitting on 65.0 percent of its shots in a 77-69 win at Swarthmore College on Jan. 26, 2013.
 
Sophomore guard Pete Christ added 14 points off the bench for the Bullets, who piled up 48 points in the paint. Senior guard Sean Gordon contributed 12 points, six assists, and five rebounds while freshman forward Cameron Stewart tossed in a season-high 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting.
 
Morgan Lee paced F&M (19-5, 12-5 CC) with 11 points while Cedric Moune finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Brandon Federici and Lionel Owona also scored 10 points apiece for the Dips, who were second among teams "receiving votes" in the latest D3hoops.com Top-25 poll.
 
Franklin & Marshall led 2-0 and 5-4 in the game's opening minutes, and after the two sides struggled to find the basket Gettysburg took the lead for good when Christ dropped in a lay-up with 12:16 left to put the Bullets up 11-9. A 6-0 Gettysburg spurt, capped by a 3-pointer from Gladstone, made it 21-13 with 8:12 to go in the half.
 
The Diplomats slimmed the deficit to five with 5:41 on the clock; however, that's when the Bullets scored nine unanswered to go up 34-20 with 2:34 remaining. Gladstone powered the outburst with six points while Gordon contributed with a trey.
 
F&M answered with the next four points, but Kirkpatrick drilled a triple from the left corner before dropping in a put-back with 20 ticks showing to hand the Bullets their 15-point bulge at the break.
 
The visitors closed the gap to nine with Devin Figueroa drained a 3-pointer less than two minutes into the half. But Gettysburg scored the next six points, with Stewart converting driving lay-ups to start and end the run, and the Bullets would lead by double figures the rest of the way.
 
The Dips twice cut the gap to 10, the last coming on a 3-pointer from Matthew Tate with 5:07 to go. But the Bullets settled any doubt with an 8-0 run, kicked off by a lay-up from Gladstone. Christ then accepted a kick-out from Gordon and knocked down a triple from the left wing before Gladstone capped the flurry with a conventional 3-point play, handing Gettysburg an insurmountable 72-54 lead with 3:24 remaining.

FRANKLIN & MARSHALL (19-5, 12-5 CC)
Morgan Lee 5-10 1-3 11; Lionel Owona 5-5 0-3 10; Cedric Moune 3-7 4-5 10;
Brandon Federici 4-13 0-0 10; Matthew Tate 3-6 0-0 9; Hunter Eggers 1-3 4-4
7; Devin Figueroa 1-3 0-0 3; Jared Wright 1-2 0-0 2; Nicholas Stern 0-0 0-0
0; Daniel Osley 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-51 9-15 62.
GETTYSBURG (13-11, 9-8 CC)
Kevin Gladstone 8-9 2-2 19; Pete Christ 6-10 0-0 14; Sean Gordon 5-8 0-0 12;
Cameron Stewart 6-6 0-1 12; Mlynue Reeves 4-5 0-0 8; Tanner Kirkpatrick 3-6
0-0 7; Joe Emerusabe 1-1 0-0 2; Alex Kaslander 1-7 0-0 2; Matt England 0-0
0-0 0; Brent Slotoroff 0-0 0-0 0; Cody Kiefer 0-0 0-0 0; Jack Shaffer 0-1
0-0 0; Uri Rahimi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-53 2-3 76.
Franklin & Marshall...........   24   38  -   62
Gettysburg....................   39   37  -   76
3-point goals--Franklin & Marshall 7-15 (Matthew Tate 3-6; Brandon Federici
2-5; Devin Figueroa 1-2; Hunter Eggers 1-2), Gettysburg 6-14 (Pete Christ
2-4; Sean Gordon 2-2; Tanner Kirkpatrick 1-2; Kevin Gladstone 1-1; Alex
Kaslander 0-4; Jack Shaffer 0-1). Fouled out--Franklin & Marshall-None,
Gettysburg-None. Rebounds--Franklin & Marshall 26 (Cedric Moune 7),
Gettysburg 23 (Tanner Kirkpatrick 6). Assists--Franklin & Marshall 12
(Morgan Lee 4), Gettysburg 18 (Sean Gordon 6). Total fouls--Franklin &
Marshall 13, Gettysburg 15. Technical fouls--Franklin & Marshall-None,
Gettysburg-None. A-218