Box Score GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Kenyon College men's basketball team got its 2012-13 season off to a great start Friday in the first half of play against Rowan University. Unfortunately for the Lords, Rowan dominated the second half of play and escaped with an 80-71 victory in the opening round of the Gettysburg College Tip-Off Tournament.

Kenyon sophomore John Bray took over the early part of the game, scoring 12 first-half points on 4-of-8 shooting from the floor and 4-of-4 shooting at the free throw line. He also grabbed five rebounds and not only guided Kenyon to a huge 27-14 edge on the boards, but a 35-30 lead on the halftime scoreboard.

In addition to Bray's opening act, classmate Jonathan Amador buried a couple of three-pointers and wrapped up his first half with eight points. Throughout those first 20 minutes, Kenyon twice built leads as large as seven points, but settled for the five-point cushion at the break.

When the teams returned to the floor it was a different ball game. Rowan used its distinct height advantage to wrest control of the paint and the boards. In that second session alone, Rowan out-scored Kenyon in the paint, 28-10, and reversed roles on missed shots, out-rebounding the Lords 30-16.

Amador, who finished with 11 points, canned another three-pointer early in the second half, but Rowan ripped off an 8-3 run to tie the game at 38-38 with 17 minutes left. Kenyon regained the lead over the next couple minutes, but a Rowan layup with 14:58 showing on the clock gave the Profs the lead for good. In fact, that layup ignited a 14-2 Rowan run that put the Lords in a 55-44 hole.

Battling that double-digit deficit and foul trouble, Kenyon still managed a comeback and whittled the Rowan lead down to two points on two different occasions. Rowan, however, closed out the last three minutes of the game on an 11-4 tear that sealed the outcome.

Julian Pavlin matched Amador's output of 11 points, while Bray completed a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Brian Lebowitz added a team-high 15 points and also grabbed seven boards for the Lords who were 21-of-61 from the floor (34.4 percent) and 24-of-35 at the free throw line (68.6 percent).

Rowan made a bunch of trips to the charity stripe, too, and went 29-of-38 (76.3 percent). Rich McNamara scored a game-high 26 points for the Profs, while Brendan Cox scored 16 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.

Rowan moves on to play host Gettysburg in the Tip-Off Tournament championship game tomorrow at 4 p.m., while Kenyon will take on Keuka College in the consolation game that starts at 2 p.m. Keuka was a opening-round loser in a 60-39 blowout loss to Gettysburg.