READING, Pa. – New Jersey City hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 27 seconds left and the Gettysburg College men's basketball team dropped a tight 61-57 decision to the Gothic Knights Thursday afternoon in the first round of the Albright College Crowne Plaza Holiday Tournament.
 
The Bullets (2-7) will now play in the tournament consolation game, to be held on Friday at 2 p.m Gettysburg will face the loser of the other first-round game between Albright and Misericordia University.
 
Senior forward Cody Kiefer posted 22 points and a game-high eight rebounds to lead Gettysburg. He shot 7-for-11 from the field while going 8-for-9 at the foul line. Freshman guard Nick Antolini provided a spark off the bench, scoring 13 points in 20 minutes while shooting 4-of-6 from 3-point range. It was just the second collegiate appearance for Antolini, who was without a point entering the game.
 
Chinwe Wosu scored 16 points to lead New Jersey City (10-1), which was second among unranked teams that received votes in the latest D3hoops.com Top-25 poll. The Gothic Knights, who rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit, pushed their winning streak to eight with the victory.
 
Gettysburg limited NJCU to 37.5 percent shooting and held a 33-29 rebounding advantage. However, the Knights scored 25 points off 24 Bullet turnovers.
 
It was just the second-ever meeting on the hardwood between the two schools, as the Bullets claimed a 96-75 victory in the inaugural meeting on Jan. 4, 1996.
 
Senior center Tanner Kirkpatrick added 10 points for the Orange and Blue, and his lay-up with 1:00 remaining put the Bullets up 57-56. However, after New Jersey City missed a 3-pointer, the Gothic Knights gathered a big offensive rebound and Sam Toney made it count, nailing a huge triple to put his team up 59-57.
 
Gettysburg then committed a turnover on its next two possessions. In the meantime New Jersey City went 2-for-4 at the foul line before sealing the win with a blocked 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
 
The Gothic Knights jumped to an early 14-6 lead, but that's when Antolini came alive. He started and ended an 8-0 Bullet run with a pair of 3-pointers to make it a 14-14 game with 9:35 on the clock.
 
Antolini dialed long distance yet again to give the Bullets their first lead (19-16) of the day, then split a pair of free throws to hand his team a 20-16 lead with 7:34 left in the half, capping a 14-2 Gettysburg spurt.
 
New Jersey City came back to tie the game twice, then reclaimed the lead (24-22) with 2:42 left in the opening period. However, freshman guard Danny Duffey put the Bullets back on top with a trey at the 2:10 mark. Duffey would go on to make a pair of free throws before Kiefer went 4-for-4 at the stripe over the final minute of the half to give the Bullets a 31-24 lead at the half. Antolini led all players with 10 points at the intermission.
 
The Bullets opened the second half on a dry spell, scoring just two points over the opening six minutes. But after New Jersey City pulled to within one, Antolini came up big again, nailing his fourth and final 3-pointer of the game to make it 36-32 with 13:48 remaining.
 
Kiefer pushed Gettysburg's lead back to seven (43-36) with a lay-up at the 11:43 mark. However, the Knights answered with an 8-0 run, capped by back-to-back 3-pointers to reclaim the lead with 9:49 left, setting up a nick-and-tuck finish that featured three ties and five lead changes.
 
Jalen Harris buried a pair of 3-pointers 41 seconds apart to give the Knights a 54-53 edge with 3:08 to go. The lead would change hands four more times the rest of the way as Kiefer carried the Bullets, scoring eight straight points in the closing minutes before Kirkpatrick's late bucket.
 
Regardless of the other first-round game's outcome, Gettysburg will be facing a relatively new opponent on Friday. The Bullets' last meeting versus Albright came in January of 2009, a 62-60 Gettysburg victory in the championship game of the Albright Tournament. Their only previous match-up with Misericordia resulted in a 71-56 win during the 1991-92 campaign.