2021-22 All-Centennial Conference Men’s Basketball Team
LANCASTER, Pa. Senior forward Avery Close (Phoenixville, Pa./Phoenixville) was named to the All-Centennial Conference First Team and freshman guard Carl Schaller (Garnet Valley, Pa./Garnet Valley) was tagged the conference’s top rookie according to an announcement by the league office on Tuesday, March 1.
Close seized his first postseason award and was named Gettysburg’s first All-CC First Team honoree since Cody Kiefer ’17 in 2016-17. The 6-6 forward finished ninth in the conference with a team-leading 12.9 points per game and added 5.4 rebounds per game. He shot 47.9 percent from the floor, 32.5 percent from beyond the arc, and 75 percent at the charity stripe. Close put up double-figure points in 10 of his last 15 games, including a career-high 27-point effort at Washington College. He also posted 23 points against No. 12 Johns Hopkins University and closed his career with 22 points against No. 18 Swarthmore College in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Close, who took a gap year in 2020-21 to return for one final run with the Bullets this season, finished his career with 986 points, 478 rebounds, and 75 blocked shots. He averaged 10.4 points per game over 95 appearances and 70 starts.
Schaller was voted as the conference’s top rookie by the league’s head coaches. The freshman guard recorded double-figures in 15 contests with a season high of 21 coming in a win over Muhlenberg College on Jan. 29. He averaged 11.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game, while shooting 45.4 percent from the floor and 39.7 percent from three-point land. Schaller ranked seventh in the league in both three-point percentage and minutes per game (30.7). He was Gettysburg’s first CC Rookie of the Year since Kiefer in 2013-14.
Additionally, senior Jack Rooney (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) earned a spot on the CC All-Sportsmanship Team. A team captain, Rooney appeared in 23 games and averaged four points per game in addition to hitting 19 three-pointers.
Gettysburg finished 15-10 this season, including 12-8 in conference play. The Bullets qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2016 despite featuring a roster with only four players that had significant playing time coming into the year.
This story was originally posted on the Gettysburg College Website.