LANCASTER, PA - Center Dan Lynch (Sr., Richboro, PA/Council Rock) made the most of senior night at Franklin & Marshall College's Mayser Center as he scored 22 points, pulled down six rebounds and grabbed a game high three steals to lead the Diplomats to a 74-70 win over Johns Hopkins University in the Centennial Conference men's basketball regular season finale.
The Diplomats (19-6, 14-4 Centennial Conference) will continue the season on February 26 as Franklin & Marshall earned the regular season championship, the #1 seed in the playoffs and hosting rights for the Centennial Conference "Final Four".
In the semifinals, #2 seed Ursinus (16-9, 13-5 CC) will face #3 Gettysburg (16-9, 13-5 CC), while the Diplomats will draw the winner of a 6:00 p.m. first round game at Haverford College between the Fords (13-11, 12-6 CC) and Hopkins (14-10, 11-7 CC) on February 24. Game times for the semifinals on the 26th and the title tilt on the 27th have not been finalized and will be announced at noon on February 23.
Leading 42-33 at halftime, the Diplomats attempted to being caging the Blue Jays early in the second half as forward Bryan Teschke (So., Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) hit a lay-up at the 19:41 mark for a 44-33 lead. The teams traded baskets to a 46-37 F&M lead before Eric Toback and TJ Valerio knocked down back-to-back three-pointers at 16:18 and 15:19 to pull Hopkins to within 46-43 of the Diplomats. Again the team's traded buckets as Teschke hit a lay-up and Toback connected on a basket to keep the Blue Jays within striking distance with 13:51 on the clock.
Lynch pushed the lead out to five points with a pair of free throws at 13:30 before guard Jackiem Wright (Sr., Sicklerville, NJ/Moorestown Friends) shook his defender and drove into the lane for a lay-up and a 52-45 F&M lead with 12:50 showing on the game clock.
Leading 54-47 following a lay-up by Lynch, Franklin & Marshall began to see its lead melt as Jeff Thompson fired in a three-pointer at the 11:26 mark to trim the margin to four points. Wright made the back-end of a pair of free throws to inch the lead back to five points, but Matt Griffin stroked a trey at 9:23 to pull the Blue Jays to within 55-52.
The lead continued to dwindle as Danny Nawrocki hit a free throw and put back a missed shot to knot the game at 55-55 with 8:12 on the clock.
Following a pair of free throws by Teschke at 7:50 to give the Diplomats back the lead, Nawrocki put in a lay-up to knot the score at 57-57 at 7:25.
Lynch untied the score as he drove at Nawrocki, hit a lay-up and converted a foul shot for a three-point play and a 60-57 lead. The margin expanded to five points the next time down the court as guard/forward Brandon Smith (Jr., Reading, PA/Governor Mifflin) drew a foul and drained both foul shots for a 62-57 lead with 6:16 to play.
The lead lasted less than a minute as Toback hit back-to-back three-pointers at 5:52 and 5:27 to put Hopkins in front for the first time since a 9-7 advantage with 14:20 left in the first half.
The Blue Jays' lead last 57 seconds as Smith connected on a three-pointer with a defender in his face at the 4:30 mark for a 65-63 lead. Point guard Logan Outerbridge (So., Glen Rock, NJ/Glen Rock) drained a pair of free throws and Smith hit an off balance lay-up for a 69-63 lead with 1:50 left in the game.
However, Hopkins fired back as Thompson and Terrence Coppola made pairs of free throws to trim F&M's lead to 69-67 with 1:22 on the clock.
Teschke swished a lay-up at 1:00 to push out to four points at 71-67, but Toback connected on his fourth three pointer of the second half to trim the lead to 71-70 at the :32 mark as he made four-of-five treys in the last 20 minutes of play and five-of-eight in the game.
However, Hopkins failed to make a basket the rest of the way as Lynch made three-of-four at the free throw line for the 74-70 final.
Overall, Lynch led the way connecting on six-of-13 from the field, two-of-two from beyond the arc, and eight-of-11 at the free throw line to lead a Diplomats' team that shot 43.1% (25-of-58) from the field, 46.2% (six-of-13) from beyond the arc and 72.0% (18-of-25) at the free throw line, while holding Hopkins to 48.1% (25-of-52) from the field, 62.5% (10-of-16) from long range and 71.4% (10-of-14) at the free throw line.
For F&M, Teschke finished with 16 points and two blocked shots and Wright chipped in eight points, while Smith added 15 points and seven rebounds.
Historically, Smith raised his career point total to 998 points in 85 games as he is on pace to become the 29th Diplomat to score 1,000 career points.
Further, Wright increased his career point total to 1,358 as he surpassed Dennis Westley '81 (1,357) for seventh on the career scoring list at the College and upped his school record three point total to 261.
Toback led Hopkins with 21 points and two blocked shots, while Griffin, Valerio and Thompson finished with 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively. Nawrocki added nine points and 13 rebounds with a pair of blocked shots to miss a double-double.
Franklin & Marshall (19-6, 14-4 Centennial Conference) will continue the season on February 26-27 in the Mayser in the Centennial Conference playoffs.
The Diplomats finished the season 4-0 at the Mayser Center versus the other playoff schools as Franklin & Marshall downed Haverford (89-78 W, December 4), Gettysburg (63-44 W, February 2), Ursinus (91-60 W, February 5) and Hopkins. Overall, F&M concluded the regular season 6-2 against the playoff contenders losing at Haverford (90-86 L, January 23) and Ursinus (91-82 L, January 8) and winning at Gettysburg (68-65 W, December 8) and Hopkins (64-59 W, January 26) as Franklin & Marshall was the only school to sweep one of the CC playoff teams this year.
