Women’s Basketball Hosts NCAA DIII Tournament, Falls 82-78
Seniors Emma Dorshimer and Teal Tasker go out as the heads of Gettysburg’s winningest 4-year period, going 87-23 (Photo courtesy of Gettysburg College Athletics)
By Garrett Glaeser, Staff Writer
Last Saturday, the Women’s Basketball Team hosted their first NCAA Division III tournament game in school history and faced Christopher Newport.
In a down to the wire affair, the Bullets fell to the Captains 82-78 and concluded their season with a 22-6 record. The Captains took on Mount St. Mary College the following day (March 2) and easily won 79-52.
Coming into the matchup off a loss in the Centennial Conference Championship to Haverford 62-40, the Bullets were hoping to go on a tournament run like the 2009-10 squad that made it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Captains were coming off a victory in the Capital Athletic Conference championship, defeating Southern Virginia 83-67, improving their record to 23-5.
Before a crowd of roughly 900 in Bream Gym, the Bullets got off to a hot start in the first quarter, going up 23-15. They continued their strong shooting and defensive play into the second quarter where they took a 14-point lead, the largest of the game for either team.
However, CNU mounted a steady comeback and cut the Gettysburg lead to just 2 heading into halftime down 41-39.
A large part of the Bullets first half success was their remarkable shooting as they went 50% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arch, well above their season average for the year, which was 41.1% from the field and 32.6% from three-point range.
Coming out of the break, the Bullets never quite regained their shooting form from the first half, making just 3 of 12 three-pointers. However Junior Ashley Gehrin picked up the slack and exploded for 14 points in the second half, the highest of both teams for the period.
Entering the fourth quarter, Emma Dorshimer ’19 led another Bullets’ run to take the lead 72-66. However CNU battled back in the next few minutes to go on a 10-0 run and pull ahead 76-72.
Shortly after, the Bullets tied it up 78-78 with two free throws from first year Tori Yantsos. But the team missed two opportunities in the closing thirty seconds from three-point range and let CNU seal the win with a four-point lead by fouling them with just less than five seconds left.
Throughout the game, Gettysburg was plagued by 18 turnovers, of which CNU scored 28 points off. Moreover, the Bullets allowed CNU to capitalize off interior play that provided them with 32 points in the paint.
Despite the loss, coach Nate Davis took a lot of positives away from the season and was thankful for his two seniors, Emma Dorshimer and Teal Tasker, who have led the women’s basketball program to its most successful four-year period in team history.
Since their first season back in 2015-16, the women’s basketball team has gone 87-23, roughly tallying a .79 winning percentage. They have had three straight 20 win seasons, three straight conference title game appearances, and made the national tournament the past two years.
Furthermore, Emma Dorshimer will be leaving Gettysburg with her name etched in the record books as the program leader in three-pointers made with 229, and second in school history and sixth in the Centennial Conference with 1,683 career points.
The Bullets will return 14 players next year, eight of which are currently first-years, as they continue their run of excellence and pursuit of making a deeper run into the tournament.
