GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team let a halftime lead slip away as they dropped a 72-67 contest to Gettysburg on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference action.
Freshman
Nick Nocito led the Bears with a career-high 17 points off the bench behind going 4-of-6 from the field, 3-of-4 from three-point range, and a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Senior
Ryan Hughes and junior
Trevor Wall each posted 12 points while Hughes added team-highs of four assists and three steals. Sophomore
Cole Grubbs added 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and six rebounds.
Gettysburg gained an early 6-3 edge at the 16:26-mark of the first half, but the Bears countered with a 14-3 run to take a 17-9 lead at the 11:17-mark. Ursinus continued their strong play by stretching their advantage to the largest of the game of 12 points at 27-15 with 5:27 left in the first half. However, the Bullets closed the opening 20 minutes with some momentum behind an 11-4 run to cut the Bears lead down to 31-26 at the half.
Grubbs got the Bears started in the second half with a steal and score before Wall followed with a three-pointer to put Ursinus up 36-28 at the 18:44-mark. The Bullets chipped away twice early at the Bears lead by cutting it down to three points each time, but Ursinus had an answer each time to get their lead back out to eight points at 47-39 with 12:49 remaining in the second half. Gettysburg finally turned the tide of the game with a 13-5 run and took their first lead of the game since the opening five minutes of the contest at 53-52. Wall took advantage of a missed dunk with a quick layup to put the Bears back up 54-53 with 7:10 left in regulation, but the Bullets countered with five-straight points to take a 58-54 lead at the 5:23-mark. Ursinus rallied to tie the game three times, however, they were unable to gain the lead back for the rest of the game. Gettysburg took the lead for good at 67-65 at the 2:39-mark and was able to close the game out.
The Bears went 23-of-48 from the field (47.9%) and 7-of-16 (43.8%) from three-point range. Ursinus shot a near perfect 14-of-16 (87.5%) from the free throw line and got 27 points from its bench. Gettysburg went 44.6 percent (25-of-56) from the field behind going 57.1 percent in the second half. The Bullets shot 38.1 percent (8-of-21) from three-point range and a solid 77.8 percent (14-of-18) from the free throw line. Gettysburg also held a sizable 34-24 edge in rebounds as well.
Carl Schaller led all scorers with 22 points which included scoring five of the Bullets final seven points.
Ursinus returns to action on Tuesday, February 7th as they will host nationally-ranked Swarthmore at 8:00 p.m.