Box Score

LANCASTER, Pa. – Franklin & Marshall held Gettysburg scoreless for nearly an eight-minute stretch midway through the second half, and the 16th-ranked Diplomats ended a six-game losing streak against the Bullets, posting a 61-52 Centennial Conference men's basketball victory Wednesday evening in the Mayser Center.

The win gave F&M (6-2, 2-1 CC) , which advanced to the NCAA Division III Final Four last season, its first win over the Bullets since their 67-48 victory on Nov. 28, 2006. Gettysburg (2-4, 2-1 CC) suffered its first conference loss of the year.

Four Diplomats scored in doubles figures, with senior guard Anthony Brooks leading the way with 16 points, six rebounds, six steals, and five assists. Junior forward Mike Baker added 14 points and eight rebounds while sophomore guard Georgio Milligan (14 points) and junior forward James McNally (11 points, seven rebounds) also reached double digits in the scoring column.

Despite playing just 29 minutes due to foul trouble, junior center Andrew Powers (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) led all players with 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting to go with eight rebounds. Junior guard Paul Crone (Braddock Heights, Md./Middletown) tossed in a career-high 13 points while junior forward Kevin Kennedy (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) posted eight points and six rebounds. Senior guard Brendan Hager (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) grabbed a career-high eight rebounds.

After shooting 50.0 percent from the floor in the first half, the Bullets were held to 31.4 percent shooting in the second period, when they were just 1-for-13 from three-point range. Gettysburg managed only three trips to the foul line while F&M went 8-for-15.

In a rematch of last year's Centennial Conference championship game, the Diplomats took an early 4-0 lead, but some hot outside shooting jumpstarted the Bullets. Kennedy and Powers each nailed a three-pointer during a 10-0 run that gave the visitors a 10-4 lead, prompting an F&M timeout. Two more three-balls from Kennedy and Crone gave the Bullets a 16-9 advantage with 15:13 left in the opening half.

F&M would climb back into it, however, and forced 13 turnovers in the first half, when Powers was on the bench for all but nine minutes. Brooks converted back-to-back steals into a pair of fastbreak dunks that capped a 10-3 Diplomat run and tied it a 19-19 with 11:08 on the clock. Junior center Chip Naddaff (Randolph, N.J./Randolph) dropped in a lay-up with 9:15 showing to give the Bullets their final lead (21-20) of the night before F&M opened up its first double-digit lead (33-23) following a 13-2 run.

Gettysburg whittled it down to a four-point game after a 6-0 spurt, capped by a conventional three-point play from Crone with 2:51 left. The Dips scored the final four points of the half to take a 37-29 lead into the locker room.

F&M pushed its lead back into double figures (41-31) on a McNally jumper with 18:19 on the clock before Powers put the Bullets on his back en route to an 11-2 run. Powers scored nine points during the stretch, and his put-back cut it to 43-42 with 13:30 to go before F&M called timeout.

The Bullets rally ended there, however, as the Dips held Gettysburg scoreless for a 7:50 stretch during a 10-0 run. A Crone lay-up ended the drought with 5:40 remaining, and a Hager bucket in transition made it 53-46 with 4:58 to go, but F&M restored its double-figure lead with 3:35 to go after baskets by Milligan and freshman guard Brandon Beckford.

The Bullets managed one final rally, as a pair of Powers lay-ups and a Kennedy jumper cut the deficit to 57-52 with 47 seconds to go. But after a missed Gettysburg three-pointer, Brooks got open on an outlet pass and threw down a dunk to put the game out of reach with 16 seconds to go.

F&M shot 46.4 percent for the game but was just 1-for-10 from beyond the arc.

Gettysburg plays its final game of the first semester on Saturday, when it hosts Widener University in a non-conference outing starting at 2 p.m.