GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Senior guard Pete Christ scored 18 points, none bigger than his go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:36 remaining, and the Gettysburg College men's basketball team used a late rally and another strong defensive effort to beat Johns Hopkins University 54-51 in Centennial Conference (CC) action Thursday evening in Bream Gym.
 
After an 0-3 start, the Bullets (2-3, 2-0 CC) have rebounded to win their first two conference games while holding their opponents to less than 55 points in both contests.
 
Gettysburg rallied twice, erasing an eight-point first-half deficit before coming back from four points down in the final three minutes.
 
It was the second game in a row that Christ knocked down a big shot late in the game, as he also hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer with four seconds left in Gettysburg's 57-54 conference-opening victory at then-No. 23 Franklin & Marshall College on Nov. 22. Christ shot 7-for-10 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range versus the Blue Jays.
 
Senior forward Cody Kiefer added 11 points, seven assists, and five rebounds for the Bullets while junior forward Cameron Stewart contributed nine points and five rebounds.
 
Ryan Curran scored a game-high 19 points for Johns Hopkins (2-3, 1-1 CC).
 
The Blue Jays led 46-42 with 3:58 left before Gettysburg dug in defensively, holding the visitors to one field goal the rest of the way. Christ kicked off a 9-1 Bullet run with 2:58 to go when he slashed down the line for a lay-up while drawing the foul. He would hit the free throw for a conventional 3-point play to make it a one-point game.
 
Johns Hopkins nudged its lead to 47-45 when Curran split a pair of free throws with 1:48 showing, but that's when Christ delivered his big shot, taking a kick-out from Kiefer and burying a trey from the left elbow.
 
Kiefer then stepped up for Gettysburg with a big defensive play, diving on the floor for a steal and drawing a foul. Then at the other end of the floor, he zipped a perfect pass to sophomore forward Mateus Maccieri, who dropped in a lay-up to make it 50-47 with 41 seconds to go. Maccieri then tore down a defensive rebound before splitting a pair of foul shots to make it a two-possession game with 27 seconds left.
 
After a pair of Hopkins free throws, Kiefer restored Gettysburg's four-point lead (53-49) with a pair of foul shots with 16 seconds left. A Curran put-back with four ticks showing made it 53-51 before freshman guard Danny Duffey went 1-for-2 at the line for Gettysburg. The Blue Jays were then called for a travel in the closing seconds.
 
It was a tight game in the early going, and the Blue Jays led just 12-10 after sophomore guard Alec Warren connected on a 3-pointer midway through the half for the Bullets. But the visitors used a 9-3 run to push their lead to eight (21-13) with 6:44 left in the half. However, that's when the Bullets dug in defensively and ended the period on an 11-0 run, capped by a baseline jumper from Stewart in the closing seconds to put the Bullets up 24-21 at the intermission.
 
Gettysburg saw its lead swell to seven two occasions early in the second stanza, only to see the Blue Jays rally to take the lead on a Nikhil Panu jumper with 8:14 left that made it 42-40. A Jesse Flannery bucket gave the Blue Jays their late four-point lead before the Bullets embarked on their rally.