HAVERFORD, Pa. – Senior Brett Cohen surpassed the career 1,000-point plateau during Haverford College's 69-58 victory over visiting Gettysburg College Tuesday night in Centennial Conference men's basketball action at Gooding Arena. Cohen, who finished the night with a game-high 22 points, becomes the 15th player in program history to score 1,000 points (video).
Haverford (5-7, 1-6 CC) never trailed during the game with Cohen scoring the opening points on a layup the Fords' first time down the floor. Gettysburg (5-9, 3-4) was able to pull even six times during the opening 10 minutes but a Matt Sherman three-pointer followed by a Gettysburg turnover and another Cohen layup broke open a 20-20 tie to give Haverford a lead it wouldn't relinquish in registering its first conference win of the season.
The Fords took a 32-26 lead into the intermission then extended the advantage to nine in the early minutes of second-half action. The Bullets battled back to within five twice over the next few minutes, with the second occurence coming at the 12:07 mark on a layup from Tanner Kirkpatrick.
A Louis Cipriano jumper from the left edge of the foul line pushed the lead to seven, 47-38, and from there the Fords broke the game open with a 9-2 spurt, building an advantage to as many as 15 before settling for the 11-point victory.
Haverford's tenacious defense limited Gettysburg to an 0-for-6 opening half from beyond the three-point line, and limited the Bullets to just 2-for-15 from beyond the arc in the second half. The Fords were only 5-for-16 themselves from long range but hit on 50 percent of their shots from the floor to distance themselves from the visitors.
Cohen scored eight points over the first 20 minutes before adding 14 more in the second half to lead all scorers. In addition to the senior's double-digit night, three other starters reached double-figures for the Fords in the win.
Cipriano added 15 points, including three field goals from beyond the arc, while Sherman chipped in with 12 and Gibby Graves scored 10. Haverford's other starter, Lucas Colombo, finished with eight points and added three assists, a pair of steals and three rebounds.
Cohen pulled down seven rebounds on the night to share game-high honors with Gettysburg's Connor Poston who led the Bullets' attack with 16 points.
The visitors out rebounded the Fords, 31-23, but Haverford forced 14 Gettysburg turnovers scoring 17 points off those miscues. In contrast, the Bullets netted only three points off five Haverford turnovers.
Cohen entered the game 16th on the program's career scoring list but his night from the floor pushed him into 14th place with 1,019 points. He is only 17 points shy of becoming the 10th-leading scorer in program history.
The Fords will try to take momentum from Wednesday's strong outing into their next game, a Saturday afternoon match-up against conference leader Dickinson College. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. following the women's game against the Red Devils.