Box Score

LANCASTER, Pa. – Courtney Tierney scored a game-high 21 points to lead Franklin & Marshall past Gettysburg 74-69 in Centennial Conference (CC) women's basketball action on Tuesday.
Tierney went 3-for-8 from behind the arc and 6-for-6 from the charity stripe, including three straight down the final stretch, to help the Diplomats (1-4, 1-1 CC) capture their first win of the season.

Jen Bengel (Timonium, MD/Roland Park Country School) led four Bullets (1-6, 0-4 CC) in double figures with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting while grabbing seven boards. Jamie Marshall (Pottsville, PA/Nativity B.V.M.) added 12 points.

Franklin & Marshall hit five free throws in the final three minutes of the game to come away with the victory and hand Gettysburg its sixth straight loss of the season, the longest such streak since the 1989-90 season.

Dana Johns hit one of her three 3-pointers to give the Diplomats a six-point cushion with 4-minutes and 46-seconds to play, but a 4-for-4 showing from Dana Bear (Lansdale, PA/Lansdale Catholic) at the free-throw line coupled with a Bengel layup closed the gap to 67-65.

A stop by the Bullet defense on the next Franklin & Marshall possession led to Kathryn Reilly (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) tying the game on a layup.

Tierney converted two more free throws and a shot in the paint to once again open up a four-point lead for the Diplomats with a minute-and-a-half showing.

Bengel’s pivot turn and left-handed layup pulled Gettysburg back within two with 1:09 left.

After collecting 11 points in the first half, Maura Lentz notched her third of the second half to finish with 14 points on a free throw with 35.8 remaining. Johns and Amy Abernathy made one each from the charity stripe for the final margin.

Looking for their first win of the season, Abernathy helped the Diplomats stretch a 40-37 halftime lead to 55-44. Despite early foul trouble, she notched eight of her nine points during the first five minutes of the second half to open up the advantage.

At the 8:41 mark of the second half, Bear capped a 10-6 spurt with a pair of free throws to cut the lead to seven.

A Johns three helped F&M regain the double-digit lead, but Marshall countered with one of her two second-half treys. Two free throws apiece by Bengel and Bear pulled within 17 seconds of each other drew Gettysburg to within three at 64-61.

Lentz scored nine of the Diplomats final 11 points in the first half on three treys, including the one that gave F&M its biggest lead (35-25) with 3:52 to play in the opening stanza. After starting five of the first six games in her debut season, Reilly came off the bench and helped the Bullets cut the lead before the intermission on 3-for-3 shooting in the final three minutes of the half.

Amy Tarbell (East Greenwich, RI/East Greenwich) added nine points on 4-for-6 shooting in her first collegiate start.

Gettysburg returns to action on Dec. 21 against Suffolk at the Nassau Sunshine Shootout. Game time is 2 p.m.

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