ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Four players were in double digits in points to give the Franklin & Marshall women's basketball team to its first win of the season at 59-43 over Cedar Crest on Monday night in non-conference action. The Diplomats improved to 1-7, while the Falcons dropped to 1-8. 

F&M came out firing early on, starting the contest on a 14-7 run, capped off by an Erica Brown jump shot, as the Diplomats were ahead with 11 minutes remaining in the first.

With seven minutes to play, F&M increased the lead to 25-9, but Cedar Crest closed out the first half on a 7-4 spurt to cut the lead to 13 at 29-16 heading into the break. 

The Falcons kept the momentum in the beginning of the second, starting the half on an 8-1 run to cut the lead to 30-24 at 16:46, but the Diplomats answered, scoring 15 of the next 17 points over eight minutes of action to take a 45-26 lead with 8:25 to go. 

F&M did not allow Cedar Crest to get any closer, as the Diplomats were 6-for-6 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes of play to finish off the Falcons and win by a score of 59-43.

Brown paced the F&M offense, finishing with a career-high 17 points, including a 7-for-8 mark from the free throw line. Carli Studnicky also had a career-high in points with 13, while Sarah Haddon recorded 11 and Anajha Burnett chipped in 10. 

As a team, the Diplomats made it to the free throw line 31 times, sinking 23 buckets for a 74.2 percentage. F&M also held the edge in rebounds at 38-33, and scored 16 points off 19 turnovers by the Falcons.

The Diplomats return to the court on Saturday when F&M hosts Alvernia at 1:00 p.m.