Gettysburg put together a run at the end of the first half to open up a 13-point lead before holding Arcadia at arm’s length in the second half for a 70-56 win in the opening game of the 2024 Gettysburg Tip-off Tournament Friday night.
Jordan Stafford led the Bullets with 18 points and seven rebounds and Akim Joseph added 13 points and eight rebounds.
Points from four different players staked Gettysburg to a 7-0 lead in the game’s first 2:54 before Joshua Okocha got Arcadia on the board with a layup at the 16:46 mark. A Nate Willia three-point play on the break stretched the lead to 15-4 with 14:37 showing. The lead remained between seven and 11 points until the Knights ran off six straight points to close to within 24-19 with 6:19 remaining. A Stafford driving layup, however, started a 6-0 counter that pushed the lead back to 30-119 with 3:08 on the clock. Baskets from Stafford and Carl Schaller in the final minute of the first half made it a 36-23 game at the break. The lead remained in double digits for the first 12 minutes of the second half, swelling as large as 53-36 on a Stafford three-point play with 11:08 on the clock. Trailing 54-40, Josh Parks canned a triple at 8:35, which ignited a 9-2 burst that cut the deficit in half. Clinging to a 58-51 lead, Rassoul Abakar hit a 3-pointer to push the lead back to double digits with 4:42 remaining, sparking a game-clinching 10-0 run.
Joshua Okocha was the only player to reach double figures for Arcadia with 10 points. He also had five rebounds.
Ohio Northern defeated Vassar 81-54 in the night’s first semifinal. Vassar and Arcadia will meet in the consolation game at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Gettysburg will play Ohio Northern in the championship game at 6 p.m.
This story first appeared on the Gettysburg College website.