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Men's Basketball tips off 2015 with win over Gettysburg, 76-75

Men's Basketball tips off 2015 with win over Gettysburg, 76-75

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Ursinus College junior guard Malik Draper (Scranton, Pa./Scranton) poured in a season-high 30 points, with sophomore forward Steve Leonard (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) adding in 14 as the Bears (1-4 Centennial, 4-8) defeated Gettysburg (3-2, 7-5) 76-75 in a nailbiter at Helfferich Hall on Wednesday night.

The Bears won at home for the third straight time and captured their fourth win in their last five games.

Ursinus survived a furious ending by the Bullets, who nearly pulled off the comeback when senior guard Sean Gordon hit a falling-down three-pointer with just 1.8 left on clock to pull within one at 76-75, after the Bears had taken a four-point lead on a foul shot by Draper with just five seconds left.

Gettysburg, who made 11 three-pointers in the game, got 23 points from Gordon who sank six of those three-pointers. Sophomore forward Cody Kiefer had 11 points, while junior forward Kevin Gladstone had ten points.

Sophomore guard Matt Knowles (Waverly, Pa./Scranton Prep) had nine points in the win for Ursinus, adding in a 7-for-10 foul shot performance. Draper also had a game-high nine rebounds to go along with four assists.

Ursinus won despite not making a field goal in the final 2:53. The Bears led by as much as seven points in the second half.

In the first half, Ursinus took a six-point lead at 24-18 with 10:51 on a layup by sophomore forward Patrick Mekongo (Yaounde, Cameroon), before Gettysburg went on a 11-1 run to go up 29-25 with 4:58 left on a layup by senior guard Joe Emerusabe.

Trailing by six with 1:12 left in the first half, Draper scored the last three point of the half for Ursinus to cut the deficit to 37-34 at intermission.

In the second half, Ursinus broke open a 47-all stalemate with a 10-3 run capped by a layup from freshman forward Joseph LoStracco (Chalfont, Pa./Archbishop Wood) with 10:43 left to give Ursinus a 57-50 lead. Gettysburg then went on an 11-0 run go up 61-57 with 7:52 left on a layup by Emerusabe.

Once again finding themselves down six, Ursinus went on a 10-2 run capped by two foul shots from Knowles to take a 74-72 lead with 45 seconds left.

Ursinus committed just 11 turnovers in the contest, and scored 32 points in the paint.

The Bears take on fourth-ranked Dickinson College on Saturday in Carlisle. This is the highest ranked team the Bears have played since facing number four Middlebury to start the 2013 season.