The Shoremen beat the Gettysburg Bullets in highly contested conference match in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
By Jensyn Hartzell
Elm Staff Writer
The Washington College Men’s Basketball team has made major advancements in their conference play in the last few weeks. This started with a win over Gettysburg College on Saturday, Jan. 18.
The Bullets started the game off with an early 12-4 run, but the Shoremen were able to fight back, going on a 10-2 run of their own to tie the score at 14.
The lead continued to swing back and forth between the teams in the first half, but Gettysburg was able to keep it. They headed into the second half with a two-point lead at 30-28.
WC began to fall behind in the beginning of the second half, but senior captain Austin Allen was able to take the momentum back with eight points on a 10-point run by the Shoremen.
They would lose by seven midways through the second half, but after a three-pointer from junior Derrick Carter, a junior, and multiple three-pointers by fellow senior captain, Alec Lewis put them back in the game.
The Shoremen had a 75-70 edge with just 1:40 to go. Soon after, the lead would go back to just one, but sophomore Dilyn Becker pushed it back up to two with a free throw. The Bullets would then send it to the game’s first overtime as they banked in a layup with just two seconds remaining.
Becker then hit two three pointers in the game’s first overtime, but the Bullets fought and made another last second layup to tie it, sending it into the game’s next overtime. After Lewis knocked in an early three for the Shoremen from the right wing, The Bullets went on a run of their own taking a three-point advantage with just one minute left.
Soon after, Allen would make a jumper while getting fouled to tie it after converting his free throw. The Bullets came down the other end to go back up two points with just 17 seconds to go.
With time ticking down, sophomore Tray Wright was able to find Daniel Brown, junior, on the wing where he banked in a three-point shot, silencing the Gettysburg gym. The Bullets could not convert on their last second half court shot and the Shoremen were able to get their third win in conference by a score of 100-99.
Junior Cole Storm said, “It was an all-around great effort and execution from the team. We came together and were able to use the skills we’ve been working on all season to bring home a conference win.”
Allen described the win as a “complete team effort,” as it was clear that both teams wanted the win extremely bad, but the Shoremen never gave up. He also stated it was “a hard-fought game from both teams” and he is “very proud of all the guys.”
The team looks to prolong their win streak at Muhlenberg this Wednesday after getting back to back big wins against McDaniel and Gettysburg. Their overall record stands at 5-10 currently, but the rest of the season will give many opportunities to the Shoremen to continue to achieve greatness.