GETTYSBURG, Pa. – In a strong showing Saturday afternoon on the road, the Haverford College men's basketball team nearly pulled off the upset of host Gettysburg College forcing the Bullets to rally in the second half for a 67-59 Centennial Conference victory.
Down by just one at the half, Haverford (4-10, 2-6 CC) came out of the break strongly to wrest the lead away from the Bullets (8-6, 6-2 CC).
With the score then tied at 42-42 with 6:21 showing on the game clock, Bo Friddell's layup put the Fords up by two over the conference's second place team.
Gettysburg's Andrew Powers sank a pair of free throws the next time down the court and after a Haverford miss on its next possession the Bullets were able to pull back in front for good on a Brendan Hager three-pointer.
Sam Permutt pulled Haverford within one, 52-51, at the 2:43 mark when he converted a three-point play with a successful free throw but the Fords could get no closer the rest of the way as Gettysburg hit 10 consecutive free throws down the stretch to preserve the victory.
Gettysburg roared out of the gate to start the game building their lead to 11 at 16-5 approaching the midpoint of the opening half but an 8-0 Haverford run cut the Bullets' lead down to just three.
Permutt sank a three-pointer and book-ended the run with a layup and free throw sandwiched around a Doug Edelman layup.
The hosts answered back, though, and had a nine point lead late in the half before the Fords rallied back to within one, then eventually nabbed their first lead of the game at 27-26 on an Eli Schwarz trey.
An Ian Goldberg three-pointer would give the Fords a four point lead but Gettysburg closed out the half with five unanswered points to take a 31-30 into the locker rooms.
Goldberg finished with a team-high 13 points for the Haverford offense while Permutt contributed 10 more for the Fords.
Powers registered a double-double for the hosts posting 17 points and 10 boards into the scorebook in the victory. Teammate Alex Zurn led all scorers with 25 points.
From the floor Haverford hit 20 of their 53 shots (38 percent) compared to Gettysburg's 18 made baskets. The hosts, however, stepped up to the free throw line 34 times -- hitting 26 of their attempts -- compared to just 15 tries from the Fords who nailed 11 for a 75 percent afternoon from the stripe.
The Fords will be back in action Wednesday night in a Hood Trophy match-up against visiting Swarthmore College at 8 p.m. following the women's game.
Haverford currently leads the Hood Trophy -- an annual contest between the Fords and Garnet -- totals by a 5-1 count following all fall sports.