Gettysburg upsets top seed, falls short of conference title
Photo Credit: Office of Athletic Communications
By Charlie Williamson, Staff Writer
The Gettysburg College Women’s basketball team (20-7) knocked off top seeded Haverford in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Tournament but came up short in the championship game against Muhlenberg last week.
Led by sophomore guard Emma Dorshimer who had 19 points, Gettysburg was able to knock off Haverford, the team with the best record in the regular season. Junior forward Emily Gibbons added eleven points and seven rebounds, ending her conference record for consecutive games with a double-double at 14.
The game started in favor of Haverford, who exited the first quarter with a 16-12 advantage. However, the Bullets took the lead on first-year guard Kiera Cesareo’s three pointer halfway through the second quarter. By halftime, the score was 26-24 in favor of Gettysburg.
The Bullets came out firing to start the third quarter, taking a seven-point advantage capped by freshman forward Emma Hahner’s three pointer with 7:06 left. Nevertheless, Haverford fought back and cut the lead to 1 entering the 4th quarter at 43-42.
In the fourth quarter, the Bullets managed to hold off the Fords retaining a 49-47 advantage with 5:25 left. In the last 2:34, the Fords’ shooting ran cold, converting only one field goal attempt while going one for six at the line. Gettysburg was able to take advantage and come up with the 59-55 victory, securing its third championship berth.
The championship game against Muhlenberg featured many momentum shifts as Gibbons converted a layup that began a 10-2 Bullets run. First-year guard Ashley Gehrin caught fire and accounted for seven of those points en-route to tying a season high 16 points in the game.
However, the first quarter also featured an injury to second-leading scorer Emma Dorshimer, who injured her foot. She would remain out until briefly attempting to enter the game in the second period only to sit out the remainder of the game.
Opening the 2nd quarter, Muhlenberg used a 13-3 run to take a comfortable lead over the Bullets. Heading into half-time, the Mules were ahead 34-29.
Opening the second half, Muhlenberg kept rolling, and manufactured a 44-34 lead with 4:34 left in the third. Consequently, Gettysburg roared back with three three-pointers, cutting the Mules’ lead to three at 46-43.
However, another momentum shift ensued as the Mules’ ended the quarter on a 10-0 run.
Muhlenberg opened the fourth quarter missing eight straight shots, allowing the Bullets to slice the lead to four thanks to a 9-0 run. The Mules figured it out quickly though, scoring 9 of the next 11 points and converting 11 of 12 free throws to take the 74-61 victory and Centennial Conference Championship title.
The game featured a monster performance from Emily Gibbons who contributed 26 points and 7 rebounds. With the performance, Gibbons scored 530 points this season, surpassing Jennifer Bengel ’06 for the program record. Gibbons set school records in field goals made (220), field-goal percentage (.580), rebounds (372), rebounds per game (13.3), defensive rebounds (270), and defensive rebounds per game (9.6).
“I had a strong season, but honestly this team and the girls I played with made it possible,” Gibbons said of her breakout season.
Gibbons and Dorshimer ended the season as the Centennial Conference leading scorers, at 18.9 and 16.7 points per game respectively.
Dorshimer and Gibbons were proud of the team’s performance and said that even though the team did not get the result they wanted in the championship game, the team still went pretty far and were proud of their accomplishments this season.
“We improved as the season went on tremendously and that’s all you can really ask for,” Dorshimer said. “The future looks very bright for our team because we don’t lose anyone to graduation and we’ll just be adding on freshman.”
