GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Gettysburg College Head Coach Mike Kirkpatrick picked up his 300th career victory and freshman Rianna Doane (Glen Mills, Pa./Bayard Rustin) scored a season-high 21 points as the Bullets took out Randolph College 85-33 in the opening game of the Days Inn Tournament.
Coach Kirkpatrick, Gettysburg's all-time leader in wins, improved to 300-228 in his collegiate career, all with the Orange and Blue. Noteworthy, he is the school's second basketball coach to earn 300 wins this season, as counterpart George Petrie picked up his milestone victory against Muhlenberg College on Nov. 23.
Every player in uniform scored a bucket for Gettysburg (5-3), which advances to the championship game at its own tournament for the third time in four seasons. The squad will face the University of Scranton (7-3), which defeated St. Mary's (Md.) College 68-53.
Gettysburg jumped out of the gates on fire, hitting five of its first six shots shots, including a pair of threes by Doane, to jump out to a 12-0 lead. After Randolph's (0-8) first field goal, the hosts turned in an 11-0 run to jump ahead 23-2 with 12:31 to play in the opening half.
Gettysburg's lead reached as much as 35 points in the opening frame as the team shot a blistering 55.3 percent (21-of-38) from the field. The edge at halftime stood at 49-16 with Doane hitting for 14 points.
After trading a pair of buckets to start the final period, the Bullets held the Wildcats without a field goal for over 10 minutes as the advantage mounted to 48 (72-24) on a lay-up by freshman Caroline Murphy (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) at 6:56. A lay-up by junior Sara Kinsley (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Ludlowe) with 18 seconds remaining sealed the 52-point win, Gettysburg's largest margin of victory since an 80-19 win over Bryn Mawr College on Jan. 24, 2004.
Gettysburg canned a season-high eight three-pointers and finished 37-of-73 (50.7 percent) from the field overall. The Bullets also posted their largest rebounding margin of the season, out-rebounding the visitors 48-26 in the game.
Doane was red hot, missing just two of 10 attempts from the field and connecting on a season-high five three-pointers. Kinsley put up 14 points and five rebounds, while senior Caitlin Moser (Wyomissing, Pa./Wyomissing) moved into fourth on Gettysburg's all-time scoring list (1,347) with a dozen tallies. Sophomore Alyssa Oursler (Middletown, Md./Middletown) had a productive outing with six points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.
In Sunday's second contest, Scranton pulled away from St. Mary's (6-3) thanks to a 14-2 run early in the final period. The Seahawks sliced a 13-point halftime deficit down to six (38-32) on a lay-up by Shana Lewis at 16:06, but the Lady Royals turned up the defensive pressure and scored off five turnovers in the next four minutes to jump back in front 52-34 at 12:26. St. Mary's was unable to pull to within less than 13 the rest of the way.
The story of the second half mirrored the first as Scranton turned a one-point lead into a 32-19 lead at the break with a 17-5 run to close the period.
The Lady Royals took advantage of 32 St. Mary's miscues to put up 38 points. Scranton's bench also did its damage, out-scoring the Seahawks' reserves 40-17 led by a team-high 13 from Alison Sweeney. Megan Kopecki, MVP of the 2009 Days Inn Tournament, finished with a dozen points, five assists, and four steals.
Pui Sham knocked down four three-pointers for her scoring output, while Sophie Pruden posted 10 boards and nine points for St. Mary's.