COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus men's basketball team was dealt a 80-77 setback in overtime to Gettysburg on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference play at Helfferich Hall.
 
Senior Ryan Hughes registered a game-high 24 points and grabbed five rebounds while sophomore Cole Grubbs posted a double-double behind 12 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman Mohamed Toure added 11 points off the bench behind going 4-of-6 from the field and grabbed three rebounds.
 
 
After the teams traded points back and forth in the opening two minutes, the Bullets pulled ahead by five points at 12-7 with 16:36 left in the first half. Ursinus battled back to tie the game at 15 before taking its first lead of the game at 18-17 with 12:02 left in the first half. The lead did not go over two points for either team until the Bears used a 9-1 run to go up 36-27 at the 5:30-mark. Gettysburg pulled within four points at 36-32 before Ursinus closed the half on a 10-3 run to go up 46-35 into the locker rooms.
 
 
Despite needing nearly four full minutes to get on the board in the second half, the Bears maintained a double-digit advantage when freshman Nick Nocito completed a three-point play at the 16:21-mark. Back-to-back three-point plays from Toure gave the Bears their largest lead of the game at 55-40 with 14:11 left in the second half. Ursinus nearly went five full minutes without a field goal but continued to hold a sizable lead after drawing trips to the free throw line. A three-pointer from Hughes put the Bears back up 12 at 60-48 with 9:35 left in regulation before the Bullets stormed back with a 19-6 run over the span of 7:12 to take their first lead of the second half at 67-66. During that stretch, the Bears made just one field goal. Hughes put Ursinus back in front with a jumper at the 2:22-mark and had a chance to put the Bears up three with nine seconds left in the second half with a pair of free throws. He split the free throws which allowed Gettysburg to tie the game on a layup with four seconds left to force overtime.
 
 
The teams traded points in overtime and the lead did not grow by more than two points until the Bullets iced the game with a pair of free throws in the final two seconds.
 
 
It was a tale of two halves for the Bears as they went 58.1 percent (18-of-31) from the field in the first half and just 23.1 (6-of-26) from the field in the second half. After overtime, Ursinus went 41.9 percent (26-of-62) from the field and 26.7 percent (4-of-15) from three-point range. The Bears went 21-of-28 (75%) from the free throw line as well. Gettysburg shot 46.2 percent (30-of-65) from the field, 33.3 percent (10-of-33) from three-point range, and 50 percent (10-of-20) from the free throw line.
 
Ursinus returns to action on Tuesday, January 10th as they will face Dickinson at 8 p.m.