Box Score

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Junior center Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) scored a season- and game-high 29 points while freshman forward Alex Zurn (Brookeville, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal) added a season-highs of 21 points and seven rebounds as the Gettysburg College men's basketball team held off a late rally to defeat Widener University 79-71 in a non-conference tilt Saturday afternoon at Bream Gymnasium.

The Bullets (3-4), playing their final game of the first semester, won for the third time in their last four games while handing Widener (7-3), the three-time defending Commonwealth Conference champions, their third loss of the season.

Gettysburg, which set a season-high for points scored, shot 56.4 percent from the field, its second-best mark of the year. The Bullets held the Pride to 36.4 percent shooting, including a 15.0 percent (3-for-20) from three-point territory. Widener forced 20 turnovers with its full-court press.

Junior forward Kevin Kennedy (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) added 10 points and six rebounds while tying a career-high with four assists for Gettysburg. Freshman guard Larry Geedey (Elverson, Pa./Twin Valley) tied a season-high with eight points off the bench while freshman center Christian Bors (Lanham, Md./Sidwell Friends [D.C.]), who had played just five minutes for the season entering the game, contributed six points in seven minutes of action. Senior guard Brendan Hager (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) tied a season-high with five assists.

Powers shot 10-for-13 from the floor and 9-for-11 at the foul line while Zurn shot 10-for-16.

Senior guard Bobby Edmunds led Widener with 14 points and four assists while senior forward Jamarr Johnson, junior guard Chris McDevitt, and sophomore forward Onyi Ezeala added 12 points each. Johnson also posted nine rebounds and three blocks while Ezeala came up with four steals.

The Bullets finished with a season-high 22 assists, the most since, ironically, they handed out 23 in their 80-75 loss at Widener last year.

The win was Gettysburg's first over the Pride since its 78-72 victory on Feb. 2, 1973. Widener had claimed each of the previous five meetings.

Widener scored the first four points of the game, but the Bullets took the lead for good when Kennedy drained a three-pointer with 15:27 left in the first half. It was an 11-10 game before Zurn powered a 7-0 Bullet spurt that opened up an eight-point gap with 10:19 on the clock. Zurn started the run with a lay-up before capping it with a conventional three-point play.

Gettysburg's lead hit double digits (23-12) when Geedey connected from beyond the arc with 7:23 left, and the Bullets led by as much as 13 on two occasions in the opening period, the last coming after a three-pointer from senior guard Andrew Bohan (Smithsburg, Md./Smithsburg) with 48 ticks showing. Justin Grotevant hit 1-of-2 free throws for Widener with 35 seconds left to make it a 36-24 game at the half.

The Bullets shot 50.0 percent in the half while holding Widener to 29.6 percent shooting despite having Powers on the court for only seven minutes due to foul trouble.

Gettysburg enjoyed its largest lead of the night in the second half, when it twice pushed its advantage to 17. The Pride trailed by nine with 15:48 to go before the Bullets ran off a 13-2 run that made it 56-39 with 12:32 to go. The hosts also led 62-45 with 10:03 remaining after a pair of Powers free throws.

Widener began to chip away at the deficit inside the final 10 minutes, and a 6-0 spurt made it a 10-point game with 6:22 left. Gettysburg still led by 13 with 3:57 to go, but the Pride used an 8-0 run to slim the deficit to five (72-67) with 1:24 remaining.

The Pride made it a one-possession game (74-71) when an Edmunds steal in the backcourt led to a Johnson lay-up with 35 seconds left. However, Powers got free for a lay-up three seconds later, and after Widener misfired on a three-pointer, Kennedy hit 1-of-2 two foul shots with 14 seconds remaining. After Widener missed a lay-up, Zurn provided an exclamation point with an emphatic dunk seconds before the buzzer.

The Bullets shot a blistering 64.0 percent in the second half.

Gettysburg takes 20 days off for Christmas break before returning to action on Saturday, Jan. 2, when it faces Medgar Evers College in the first round of the York (Pa.) College Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at 7 p.m.