COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College men's basketball had things clicking on all cylinders as the Bears routed Gettysburg, 91-60, to complete back-to-back regular season sweeps of the Bullets.
The Bears (9-7, 6-3) never trailed in the contest, continuing their dominance against the Bullets. Ursinus has now won four in a row in the series and seven of the last 10 matchups. The victory put the Bears in sole possession of third place in the Centennial.
Five Bears scored in double figures to lead a potent, balanced offensive attack that ripped through the Centennial's bottom-ranked defense. Junior Ryan McTamney led all scorers with 18 points to go along with seven rebounds. Freshman Ryan Hughes tied a career-high with 17 points and just missed his first career double-double with nine boards. Hughes went 7-of-9 from the field and made all three of his 3-point tries.
Reserve sophomore George Gordon injected the offense with instant bench scoring. Gordon chipped in 13 on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Senior Eric Williams Jr. and junior Shane Stark added 12 and 10 points, respectively. Williams made a 3-pointer to extend his consecutive game streak with a made three to 35 games.
Ursinus, the conference's top shooting team, shot the ball efficiently at a 56.5-percent clip (39-of-69) with a dominating 58 points coming in the painted area. On the other end, the Bears guarded well, limiting the Bullets to just 20 paint points and 39.3-percent shooting overall. However, Gettysburg knocked down 11 three pointers on 30 attempts after they shot 10-of-43 from beyond in the previous matchup.
The Bears took a 46-37 edge at halftime then pulled away in impressive fashion, nearly doubling the Bullets' output in the second half, 45-23.
After an Ursinus turnover to start the second half, the Bullets made a triple to pull within six points but it was all Bears after that.
A steal and run out by Stark pushed the lead to 50-40. Over four minutes into the last stanza, some creative ball movement led to Hughes finishing on a drive to the rim to get the Bears up by 14 points.
Muredda's dribble drive and kick then found Hughes in the corner for a three that spun around the rim and finally dropped after some time hanging on the rim to expand the lead to 66-50.
Ursinus would close the game on 25-10 run with the Bears getting their reserve players valuable minutes. Taking full advantage of playing time, senior Matt Williams scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds in just seven minutes of work. Williams drained two triples.
Early on in the game, the Bears and Bullets (4-12, 3-6) went up and down the Helfferich Hall hardwood as the first few minutes were played at a frenetic pace. Ursinus jumped out to an early lead as sophomore Lucas Olshevski's baseline drive gave the Bears a 16-7 advantage six minutes into the contest.
The Bullets responded with an 8-0 run to knot the game at 18-18 with more than ten minutes left in the half. Ursinus put together a 24-10 spurt from the 10:35 to 3:21 marks in the first half to gain a 42-28 lead.
Closing the half, the Bullets found their stroke from long range by hitting 3-pointers on five consecutive possessions to close the Bears' lead to nine points at halftime.
Nick Antolini led the Bullets with 16 points. Avery Close record a double-double with exactly 10 points and 10 rebounds and added four blocks.
Senior Zack Muredda continued to be a pest on the defensive end, plucking away four steals. Muredda has 15 steals in last three outings, giving him the conference lead with 39 steals. He also recorded seven points and six assists.
The Bears committed 10 turnovers compared to the Bullets' 15 miscues.
Only 13 free throws were taken in the game. The Bears went 5-of-8 (62.5%) and the Bullets went 1-of-5 (20%).
The Bears look to knock off No. 10 Swarthmore on Alumni Day Saturday at 1 p.m. Ursinus led at halftime the last time they squared off with the Garnet on Dec. 5 but eventually fell 61-53.