The Gettysburg College women’s basketball team, ranked 12th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, used a 10-0 run in the second quarter to open up a double-digit lead and defeat Washington (Md.) 58-39 in the semifinal of the 2025 Centennial Conference women’s basketball championship tournament Friday night at Bream Gym. Gettysburg is now set to meet Johns Hopkins in the championship game Sunday afternoon in Baltimore.
Alayna Arnolie led the second-seeded Bullets with 18 points, and Shinya Lee added 11 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocked shots.
Junior Alayna Arnolie led the Bullets with 18 points Friday night.
Abby Meredith paced fourth-seeded Washington with 15 points.
Arnolie canned a pair of 3-pointers around a Karry Kelliher triple to make it a 6-3 game after just 1:24. Then nearly three minutes passed before Arnolie hit a step-back to stretch the lead to 8-3. Four straight points from Washington cut the margin to one, but a single Jameson Mott free throw with 4:10 showing to make it 9-7, where the score remained for the remainder of the opening quarter.
After Lee drove to the hoop with 8:54 to play in the second quarter, Kelliher and AB Holsinger traded triples. Baskets from Abby Meredith and Emma Robinson tied the game at 14-all with 6:53 showing. Another Holsinger 3-pointer reestablished the three-point lead. After Kelliher hit a jumper with her foot on the line, a Lee layup with 5:53 to play, then a block that she picked up at midcourt and raced to the basket ignited a game-changing 10-0 run that built a 27-16 lead with 2:58 to play. Robinson halted the run on the other end, cutting the margin to nine at the break.
After a Robinson second-chance layup, Arnolie completed a three-point play to push the lead back to double digits with 8:13 on the clock. The Shorewomen trimmed the margin to five with 3:27 to play, but Reagan Chrencik responded with a driving layup to spark a 7-0 close to the quarter. Chrencik had five of her team’s points during the run.
After Lee and Meredith traded baskets to start the final period, Arnolie drained a 3-pointer, and Ava O’Neil pulled up and hit a jumper to build the lead to 46-29 with 7:55 to play. Washington twice closed the deficit to 11 but got no closer down the stretch. Three 3-pointers from three different Bullets keyed a 10-2 finish to the game.
Gettysburg and Johns Hopkins will meet in Sunday’s championship game for the fourth straight year, including the third consecutive time in Baltimore. Game time is 1 p.m.
Bullet men lose to Hopkins in overtime
In a game with seven ties and 14 lead changes that required overtime, second-seeded Johns Hopkins had the final say against third-seeded Gettysburg, getting a basket with 11.7 seconds remaining to take a one-point lead and eventually notch a 69-67 victory in the 2025 Centennial Conference semifinal Friday night in Baltimore.
Jordan Stafford led the Bullets with 16 points, six rebounds, three steals, and two blocked shots, and Carl Schaller also scored 16 points, adding five assists, four rebounds, and three steals.
Wyatt Eglington Manner led the Blue Jays with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Manner scored the game’s first five points to stake the hosts to an advantage just 1:28 into the game. Carl Schaller, however, responded with back-to-back 3-pointers, and Stafford added a pull-up in the lane for an 8-5 edge with 16:13 showing. The teams traded runs, with Johns Hopkins building an 18-14 lead at 12:02 on the clock. Trailing 21-18, Gettysburg went on the biggest run of the opening half and put together a 16-4 march to open up a 34-25 lead with 1:33 to play. Lorenzo Carrarar had all eight of his points during the run. The Blue Jays closed to within 36-29 at the break.
The Bullets held a lead between four and eight points for the first seven minutes of the second half. The Blue Jays drew to within one four times before two Eglington Manner free throws tied the game at 51-all with 9:46 remaining. Johns Hopkins regained the lead at 53-52 when Tanti Felli slammed a dunk home with 8:45 to play. Gettysburg reestablished a five-point lead before the Blue Jays responded to reclaim a 59-58 edge with 4:07 to play. The teams traded leads until a Brian Johansson floater in the lane snapped a 60-all deadlock with 25.1 seconds remaining. Out of a timeout, Schaller drove and hit a layup with 11.2 seconds to play to retie the game, and the defense withstood a pair of Hopkins attempts at the end of regulation to force overtime.
A Stafford layup gave Gettysburg a 67-64 lead with 2:45 to play in the extra session. Jeb Williams made it a one-point game a minute later. Eglington Manner got a layup to go with 11.7 seconds remaining for a 68-67 lead. Gettysburg drove the length of the floor out of the inbounds but was called for a player-control foul with 5.8 seconds to play. John Windley hit the second of two free throws with 4.8 ticks remaining, and the Bullets’ game-tying attempt from the wing bounced off the rim.
The Bullets will now await the NCAA tournament field announcement at noon on Monday to see if their season continues.
These articles first appeared on the Gettysburg College website.
Photos by Pete Vogel.
