By Colin Lawless, Staff Writer
The Bullets Men’s Basketball team fell to Washington College away this past weekend despite a 20-point second half performance from Nick Antolini ‘20. Avery Close ‘21 and Danny Duffey ‘20 were also among the Bullets’ top scorers, and both put in strong performances in spite of the loss.
The first half played out as a bit of a game of catch up. Washington started the half with an 8-0 run, and were up by as much as 9 at one point. The Bullets were able to cut the lead to 6 at half and went into halftime feeling confident.
Antolini began to heat up as the second half got going, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. The Bullets were able to cut the lead to two points on four occasions in a six-minute span, but Washington couldn’t be stopped on the offensive end.
The Bullets started to cool off offensively, forcing them to foul late in the game. Washington converted on their last five attempts from the line to close out the game with a final score of 79-70.
The Bullets finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field, slightly better than Washington’s 49 percent, while Washington outrebounded Gettysburg 30-29.
This was Antolini’s second straight game with a 20 point second half, as he went for 21 in the second half against McDaniel on Wednesday. He is one point away from the 1,000 point milestone.
Both Gettysburg and Washington remain one game behind Ursinus for the final spot in the Centennial Conference Playoffs. The Bullets will continue their playoff push this Wednesday, February 18th, when they host Dickinson College in Bream Gym at 8 p.m.
After that, Gettysburg concludes their season with a home game against Muhlenberg. The Bullets beat the Red Devils and fell to the Mules back in January.
Ursinus also faces Muhlenberg and finishes the regular season against F&M. They too lost to the Mules and beat F&M.
Gettysburg will surely need to beat both their final two opponents and root for the Diplomats (a rare occasion) in order to reach the CC playoffs to face off against likely No. 4 seed Haverford.
