Box Score LANCASTER, Pa. – Hayk Gyokchyan netted a career-high 40 points to lead No. 17 Franklin & Marshall to a 71-55 victory over Plattsburgh State in the first round of the 46th Annual Sponaugle New Years Tournament. The Diplomats will take on Eastern Connecticut tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m. in the championship game while the Cardinals face Salisbury at 5:00 p.m. in the consolidation game. Eastern Connecticut handed Salisbury a 75-55 defeat in the first game of the tournament.
Gyokchyan came out strong, scoring 16 points in the first 5:27 of action and 18 of F&M's 26 points as the Diplomats jumped to an early 26-16 lead half way through the first. F&M scored nine unanswered over the next five minutes to go up 19, 35-16, with 6:49 left to the break.
PSU tallied four straight, before Gyokchyan hit a trey at 2:16 and netted 1-of-2 from the stripe minutes later to give F&M a 39-20 halftime lead.
F&M continued to pour it on to the start the second and went up 22 points, 48-26, on a Gyokchyan layup at 13:46. The Cardinals slowly chipped away over the next minutes to come within nine points, 56-43, with 7:18 left in the game. Back-to-back layups from Jon Salandra quickly put F&M back up in double-digits, but PSU would not go away.
The Cardinals went on a 12-6 run over the next six minutes to make 62-55 with just under two minutes to play. Max Brewer went a perfect 4-for-4 from the line over the next two possessions to put F&M up 13 and Gyokchyan hit his sixth triple of the evening with 45 second left to make it 71-55.
Gyokchyan shot 14-for-16 from the floor, including 6-for-8 from behind the arc for the third highest single game scoring in school history. Salandra picked up a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards while Ed Early finished with six points off the bench.
John Perez led the Cardinals with 15 points and Shamoy McIntosh finished with 11 for the Cardinals.
F&M shot 60.5% from the floor and held PSU to 42% percent shooting.
FRANKLIN & MARSHALL 71, PLATTSBURGH STATE 55
PLATTSBURGH STATE (7-3)
PEREZ, John 5-9 5-8 15; McINTOSH, Shamoy 4-6 3-3 11; PARKER, Kalik 4-10 0-0 10; MOODY, Jordan 2-4 0-1 5; MITCHELL, Mike 1-3 2-4 4; FIELDS, Shavar 2-3 0-2 4; CORREA, Edward 1-1 0-0 3; HODGSON, Ezra 1-2 0-0 2; TIBBS, Gary 0-2 1-2 1; O'SHEA, Billy 0-0 0-0 0; BAKER, Anthony 0-1 0-1 0; WILLIAMS, Reggie 0-3 0-0 0; OUTLAW, James 0-0 0-0 0; MANNING, Chris 0-2 0-0 0; OTTEY, Kirk 0-1 0-0 0; SIERGIEJ, Alan 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-48 11-21 55.
FRANKLIN & MARSHALL (9-1)
Hayk Gyokchyan 14-16 6-11 40; Jon Salandra 4-5 2-7 10; Ed Early 2-2 2-2 6; Max Brewer 0-1 4-4 4; Brandon Beckford 0-2 3-7 3; Devin Figueroa 1-5 1-1 3; Matt Porter 1-4 0-0 3; Morgan Lee 1-3 0-0 2; Cedric Moune 0-0 0-0 0; Terrel Phelps 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-38 18-32 71.
Plattsburgh State............. 20 35 - 55
Franklin & Marshall........... 39 32 - 71
3-point goals--Plattsburgh State 4-13 (PARKER, Kalik 2-7; MOODY, Jordan 1-1; CORREA, Edward 1-1; MANNING, Chris 0-1; MITCHELL, Mike 0-2; McINTOSH, Shamoy 0-1), Franklin & Marshall 7-16 (Hayk Gyokchyan 6-8; Matt Porter 1-2; Brandon Beckford 0-1; Devin Figueroa 0-3; Morgan Lee 0-2).
Fouled out--Plattsburgh State-McINTOSH, Shamoy, Franklin & Marshall-Jon Salandra.
Rebounds--Plattsburgh State 27 (PEREZ, John 6), Franklin & Marshall 30 (Jon Salandra 10).
Assists--Plattsburgh State 10 (MANNING, Chris 4), Franklin & Marshall 17 (Max Brewer 6).
Total fouls--Plattsburgh State 26, Franklin & Marshall 21.
Technical fouls--Plattsburgh State-None, Franklin & Marshall-None.
A-782
