GETTYSBURG, Pa. – After two runner-up finishes at the Centennial Conference Championship and a season lost due to the pandemic, Gettysburg College returned to the top of the mountain by earning a hard-fought come-from-behind 43-40 victory over Johns Hopkins University in front of a rowdy and raucous crowd inside Bream Gym on Saturday night.
 

                       
Gettysburg's Top Performers

• Mackenzie Tinner '22 (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North): 16 Points, 5 Rebounds, 2 Blocks, CC Championship Most Valuable Player
• Delaney Donohoe '25 (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge): 11 Points, 9 Rebounds
• Mackenzie Szlosek '25 (Holtsville, N.Y./Sachem East): 10 Points, 5 Rebounds

 
Johns Hopkins' Top Performers

• Diarra Oden: 11 Points, 6 Rebounds
• Erin Walsh: 10 Points
• Jadyn Murray: 9 Points, 6 Rebounds

 
Game Summary…

• First Quarter
  • Despite two quick scores by Johns Hopkins, the opening period was a defensive struggle as the teams attempted to find their range. Tinner accounted for half the points in an 8-0 run and the Bullets earned a 10-6 advantage at the end of the opening period.
• Second Quarter
  • Tinner dropped in a lay-up at the start of the next period, but that would be Gettysburg's last points over the next seven minutes. The Blue Jays posted seven-straight points to take a 13-12 lead with 6:01 left.
  • Junior Meghan Barbera (Fort Washington, Pa./Upper Dublin) broke the cold spell with a drive to the rim at 2:05. Kara Milliken banked in a three-pointer from the right wing to put the Blue Jays back in front and a free throw by Szlosek set the score at 16-15 going into halftime.
• Third Quarter
  • Murray and Tinner showed off their range by hitting jumpers from just inside the arc on their respective sides of the court to start the second half. The Bullets, however, would go nearly four minutes without another point, which opened the door for the Blue Jays to potentially pull away. A 9-0 run by the visitors quieted the crowd and lifted Johns Hopkins in front 27-17 with 5:48 to play.
  • Szlosek came down and knocked in a jump shot to help right the ship for Gettysburg. Four-straight free throws by Tinner and a free throw by Donohoe cut the deficit down to three (27-24) with less than three minutes left in the period.
  • Johns Hopkins pulled back in front 31-24 on a putback by Michaela O'Neill and a fast-break jumper by Oden. The Blue Jays would eventually take a 33-28 lead into the final period in Bream Gym.
• Fourth Quarter
  • The Bullets scraped and clawed their way back into the game and held Johns Hopkins to just a pair of free throws in the first six minutes. Donohoe converted twice from near the rim and Tinner added a lay-up to cut the margin down to one (35-34) with 5:05 to go.
  • Murray hit another long jumper to push the Blue Jays back in front, but Gettysburg came storming up the court. Szlosek dropped in a jumper on a fast-break and following a steal by senior Carly Rice (Pennington, N.J./Pennington School), Tinner went up-and-under Murray for another lay-in to put Gettysburg in front 38-37 at 3:05.
  • Johns Hopkins committed a pair of turnovers and missed its next three shots. The Bullets extended the lead to 42-37 thanks to four free throws, but the Blue Jays made things interesting down the stretch as O'Neil nailed a three-pointer from the wing with 21 seconds left. Rice went to the line and connected on her second attempt before O'Neil's final heave missed the mark in the final seconds.

 
By the Numbers

• Gettysburg came into the game leading all of Division III in field-goal percentage defense and Johns Hopkins felt that defensive pressure for 40 minutes in posting its second-lowest mark of the season at 23.7 percent (14-of-59). The Blue Jays won the rebounding battle 44-40, while the Bullets owned a 24-14 edge in points in the paint.
• Gettysburg claimed its third conference title, all of which have occurred on its home floor. The Bullets have dialed up the defense in all of those prior championships, beating Swarthmore College 48-46 in 2013 and besting Haverford College 44-35 in 2018. In all three championship victories, Gettysburg held its opponents to less than 26 percent shooting from the field.
• Tinner tallied 16 points for her eighth double-figure scoring performance in her last 10 games. The senior forward was named the CC Player of the Week last Monday.
• Donohoe shined in her CC Championship debut, averaging 14 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. The semis and finals marked the first time this season the first-year forward had tallied double-figures in back-to-back games.

 
Where the Series Stands
Gettysburg took two of three meetings with Johns Hopkins this season and evened the all-time series at 41-41. The Bullets improved to 5-0 against the Blue Jays in the CC playoffs.
 
Head Coach Nate Davis
"First off I felt relief that it was over and obviously excitement and happiness for the team and the players," said Davis, who becomes the first Gettysburg women's basketball coach to lead his teams to multiple Centennial titles. "It was a hard-fought year and this was a little more special in the sense that we had a year off. It seems so long ago, that first one in 2018. None of these seniors played on that team; they came in the year after that. We've made five-straight conference championships, but it was their third for them without a win before today. For them to get it, I just felt excited for them and to see the joy on their faces made me feel amazing."
 
On to the Big Dance
As the conference champion, Gettysburg receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship which is set to begin on March 4-5. The Bullets will make their ninth appearance on the big stage and sixth since 2010. The team had made three-straight appearances prior to the pandemic, earning an automatic bid in 2018 and at-large bids in 2019 and 2020. The women's basketball selection show will air live on NCAA.com on Monday, Feb. 28, at 2:30 p.m.