GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team mounted a strong second half comeback bid, but ultimately was unable to overcome a tough start to Tuesday's Centennial Conference road matchup with an 89-73 loss at Gettysburg. The Fords outscored the Bullets by a 46-37 margin during the final 20 minutes of playing time.
Joe Scibelli, who scored 13 of his team-high 19 points in the second half, led three Haverford scorers who finished the game in double figures. Coming off of back-to-back games in which he has led the team in scoring since the calendar flipped to 2018, Jonathan Lang added 14 points as he shot 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. The sophomore now has double figure scoring totals in all but two of Haverford's games this season. Jesse Turkson recorded his fifth double figure game over his past seven contests with 12 points against the Bullets. Ten of the first year's points came during the second half.
Gettysburg led by a 52-27 margin after the first 20 minutes and finished the game with four of its five starters in double figures. Cameron Stewart led those efforts with 20 points. The Bullets shot over 61% in both halves, but also knocked down seven triples during the first half to help them jump out to the early advantage. The hosts scored 10 straight after Kyle Goldfarb opened the scoring. However, most of the damage was done in the final five minutes of the half. Leading 36-23, the Bullets scored 14 straight points before a layup from Michael Wiper at the end of the half.
Haverford's second half surge really started picking up momentum at the 11 minute mark when the Fords ran off 10 straight points of their own in just 1:40 of playing time. The Fords got the lead withered down to as few as 13 points with 2:51 to play in regulation before running out of time. Turkson scored seven straight for Haverford during that time to make the score 83-70. Nevertheless, Gettysburg held off any more late charges in its 89-73 win.
Despite the final score, Haverford did hold a 28-16 advantage in points off of turnovers and outscored the Bullets bench by a 32-14 margin. Kahlil Garnes came up with five of the Fords' 10 steals on the night which helped Haverford force Gettysburg into 20 giveaways.
Men's basketball will return home this Thursday for its second of three games this week when it hosts McDaniel for an 8 p.m. tip inside the Gooding '84 Arena. The contest will be part of a doubleheader with the women's game tipping at 6 p.m. against the Green Terror.