SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Visiting Gettysburg College entered Saturday's game at Swarthmore College shooting 30.4 percent from behind the 3-point line. On Saturday, the Bullets struck repeatedly from downtown, sinking 64.7 percent of their 3-point chances in the first half and finishing with a season-high 54.2 percent mark.
Swarthmore Men's Basketball found itself down by double-digits after 10 minutes of uncanny shooting by the visitors, and the gap reached 21 points by the end of the first half. The Garnet clawed back in the second half to within nine points but ultimately took the conference loss 76-65.
Swarthmore fell to 15-4 in the loss and 9-3 in the Centennial Conference; the Garnet are now tied with Johns Hopkins for first in the league. Gettysburg improved to 6-13 overall, 5-7 Centennial.
Two Garnet players reached double figures in scoring: Cam Wiley (28) and Zack Yonda (13). Wiley shot 12-for-29 from the floor and had five rebounds and four steals. Yonda scored eight of his points from the free-throw line, only missing once from the stripe. He finished a rebound shy of a double-double.
Freshman Nate Shafer added eight points, seven rebounds, and two blocks. The Garnet as a team blocked five shots and pulled down 39 rebounds.
The Garnet finished 33.3 percent from the floor (23-for-69) and just 17.2 percent from 3-point land (5-for-29).
Also notable, the Garnet were extremely careful with the ball on Saturday, committing a season-low five turnovers.
In the first half, the Garnet only trailed by four with 12 minutes to go following a 3-pointer by Wiley. However, the Bullets then sprung for a 10-0 run that stretched into a 21-4 run.
The Garnet didn't roll over and chipped away at Gettysburg's lead late in the second. A 7-0 run capped off by a Wiley layup with four minutes to play pulled Swarthmore within 12. A Wiley triple with 24 seconds to play made it a nine-point game, but that would be as close as Swarthmore could get in the end.
Swarthmore has Muhlenberg College on Wednesday night at home at 8 p.m.
