ANNVILLE, PA - Forward Brandon Smith (Sr., Reading, PA/Governor Mifflin) scored a game high 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Franklin & Marshall College men's basketball team defeated Lebanon Valley College 69-55 in non-conference action.
Franklin & Marshall (5-1, 2-0 Centennial Conference), which won its fourth straight game of the season, never trailed in the game as Smith hit a three-pointer and a lay-up five and 23 seconds into the game, respectively, to put F&M in front to stay.
The Diplomats jumped out to an 18-5 lead with 13:41 left in the first half and led by as many as 14 points on three occasions in the opening half.
Lebanon Valley (2-4, 0-1 MAC Commonwealth Conference) climbed back into the game in the closing minutes of the first half as the Dutchmen rallied from a 29-15 deficit with 6:10 to go in the stanza by engineering a 10-0 run fueled by a pair of Hunter Bretschneider threes and capped by two free throws by Kyle Enoch that made it a four-point game with 2:45 left. However, Smith hit a lay-up with 2:20 left and collected a defensive rebound at the 1:10 mark as the Diplomats took a 31-25 lead into the locker room.
The Dutchmen continued their comeback in the second half as back-to-back treys by Bretschneider and Enoch tied it up 31-31 less than two minutes into the period. LVC tied it two more times, first on a Dave Kasyan lay-up and then on another Enoch three, but the Diplomats took the lead for good on lay-up from center Derek Hines (So., Lancaster, PA/Manheim Township) with 16:21 left making it 38-36.
Lebanon Valley cut the lead to two points at 43-41 at the 14:27 mark, but Franklin & Marshall pushed the lead out to 55-46 with 9:04 to go as the Dutchmen failed to cut the lead below five points the rest of the way.
Trailing 57-48 with 6:00 remaining, LVC's Dave Kasyan scored four points in a row, sinking a free throw before converting a lay-up and foul shot to pull LVC to within five at 57-52 with 4:43 left on the game clock.
The Diplomats defense locked down on the Dutchmen from there holding LVC without a field goal for the remainder of the game while scoring the next 10 points to go ahead 67-52 with 1:07 left in the game as Lebanon Valley missed a pair of shots and turned the ball over four times during the crucial stretch.
Forward Bryan Teschke (Jr., Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) finished with 15 points and five rebounds for the Diplomats, while Hines chipped in nine points and seven rebounds, guard Adam Leonard (So., Muncy, PA/Muncy) tacked on 13 points and four rebounds, guard Mantas Paulauskas (So., Parry Hall, MD/Our Lady of Mt. Carmel) tallied four points and point guard Logan Outerbridge (Jr., Glen Rock, NJ/Glen Rock) added six points, four rebounds and six assists with a pair of steals to account for the Diplomats' scoring.
For Lebanon Valley, which lost for the third game in a row, Bretschneider added a team high 12 points, while Jimmy Curran and Enoch chipped in 11 points.
The key to the game was F&M's dominance on the glass and LVC's struggles beyond the arc as the Diplomats held a 41-30 advantage in rebounds, including a 13-8 margin on the offensive glass, while LVC hit eight-of-26 from long range (30.8%) as the Dutchmen made 17-of-48 field goals in the game.
The win marks the 702nd in the career of Franklin & Marshall head coach Glenn Robinson (702-243) who ties former University of Albany head coach Dick Sauers (702-330) for 24th on the all-time NCAA wins list.
Franklin & Marshall (5-1, 2-0 Centennial Conference) will continue the season on December 6 at home versus Dickinson College in Centennial Conference action. Game time is set for 8:00 p.m. at the Mayser Center.