After Tight First Half, Swarthmore Pulls Away to Defeat Bullets Men’s Basketball

Nick Lord prepares to shoot; he made four of his first five 3-point shots against Swarthmore (Photo Benjamin Pontz / The Gettysburgian)

Nick Lord prepares to shoot; he made four of his first five 3-point shots against Swarthmore (Photo Benjamin Pontz / The Gettysburgian)

By Benjamin Pontz ’20, Managing News Editor

Swarthmore’s men’s basketball team entered Saturday’s matchup with the Gettysburg Bullets ranked 11th in the country while the Bullets entered with a 5-13 record (3-9 in Centennial Conference play).

Nevertheless, during the first half, Gettysburg seemed well-positioned to notch an upset as Nick Lord ’20 had a hot hand from beyond the arc, sinking four of his first five shots from long distance, and Luke Cooper ’19 attacked the rim for 6 first-half points all the while the Bullets played tough half-court defense that held Swarthmore to just 20 shot attempts. At the half, Swarthmore led 27-26.

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In the second half, though, all of that began to fade away. Lord missed both of his three-point attempts and Cooper shot just 1-for-4 from the floor after intermission. 10 second half points from Cameron Stewart ’18 notwithstanding, Swarthmore pulled away, shooting 58% from the field and making 8 of 14 three-point shots in the second half, and notched a 78-64 victory.

Lord ultimately finished with 18 points, Stewart had 12, and Matt England ’18 and Cooper each added 9 as the Bullets dropped to 5-14 overall including losses in seven of their last nine games. They will look to upset 15-4 Johns Hopkins on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. in Bream Gym.

Author: Benjamin Pontz

Benjamin Pontz '20 served as Editor-in-Chief of The Gettysburgian from 2018 until 2020, Managing News Editor from 2017 until 2018, News Editor in the spring of 2017, and Staff Writer during the fall of 2016. During his tenure, he wrote 232 articles. He led teams that won two first place Keystone Press Awards for ongoing news coverage (once of Bob Garthwait's resignation, and the other of Robert Spencer's visit to campus) and was part of the team that wrote a first-place trio of editorials in 2018. He also received recognition for a music review he wrote in 2019. A political science and public policy major with a music minor, he graduated in May of 2020 and will pursue a master's degree in public policy on a Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Manchester before enrolling in law school.

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