SWARTHMORE, Pa. – Senior Caroline Murphy (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) poured in a career-high 25 points to lead the Gettysburg College women's basketball team past Swarthmore College 65-56 in a rematch of last season's Centennial Conference championship game inside Tarble Pavilion Saturday afternoon.
Murphy, who put up 19 points against Swarthmore (2-2, 0-2 CC) in last year's conference title game, finished 11-of-19 from the floor and added six rebounds, three assists and one blocked shot. Gettysburg (3-1, 1-1 CC) also received a career-high scoring effort from sophomore Emily Duggan (Marmora, N.J./Ocean City), who finished with 10 points and seven boards.
Despite an off-night shooting, Katie Lytle posted an impressive stat line with 10 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, and five steals for Swarthmore. Abbey Deckard led the Garnet with 15 points and Elle Larsen added 14 points and seven rebounds.
In the opening half alone, the lead changed hands seven times. Kayla Moritzky knocked down the opening bucket from beyond the arc and a jumper by Deckard gave the hosts a 5-0 lead. Murphy countered for Gettysburg, hitting a three-pointer before back-to-back jumpers to put the visitors in front 7-5.
The back-and-forth battle raged for the remainder of the half with Larsen completing an old-fashioned three-point play to boost the Garnet ahead 30-29 with 2:44 to play. That would be Swarthmore's last lead as junior Samantha Pagel (Harleysville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) canned a jumper to regain the upper-hand for Gettysburg. Murphy capped a huge 17-point opening period with a lay-up with 14 seconds left to give the Bullets a 33-30 edge at the half.
Lytle cut the deficit to one with the first score of the final period, but that would be as close as Swarthmore would get the rest of the way. The Bullets went on a 16-2 run capped by a three-pointer by senior Alyssa Isler (New Hope, Pa./New Hope-Solebury) to take a 49-34 advantage with 11:36 remaining.
The Garnet cut the margin to seven (61-54) with 56 seconds left before senior Rianna Doane (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) helped seal the win with four free throws in the final 39 seconds.
Gettysburg canned 25-of-55 field-goal attempts (45.5 percent), including 6-of-12 from three-point land. Swarthmore shot 30.5 percent from the floor (18-of-59) and only made 6-of-28 attempts from beyond the arc. The Garnet held a 36-34 edge on the glass.
Doane and Isler each turned in nine points for the Bullets with the former adding four steals. Sophomore Jessica Porter (Narberth, Pa./Lower Merion) tallied four points and seven rebounds.
Gettysburg makes its home debut against Dickinson College on Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 6 p.m.