LANCASTER, Pa – No. 17 Franklin & Marshall escaped with a thrilling 63-60 victory over Johns Hopkins in Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball action Thursday evening at the Mayser Center. F&M improved to 12-2, 7-0 CC and the Blue Jays dropped to 7-7, 4-3 CC. 

Glenn Robinson picked up career-win 902 and tied Bobby Knight for the third spot for the most victories in NCAA history. 

Hunter Eggers put F&M up 58-54 with 3:41 left in the game and the Blue Jays answered with five straight to take a 59-58 lead with 1:34 on the clock. Cedric Moune quickly put the Diplomats up one and Matthew Tate took a charge on the next possession, giving F&M the ball back. 

A free throw from Eggers with 15 ticks left gave F&M a 61-59 edge and Eggers went to the line again seven seconds later and hit his second shot for a 62-59 F&M lead with eight seconds left. F&M appeared to force a missed 3-pointer by Hopkins as time expired, but Brandon Federici was called for a foul, sending Sam Gordon to line with .04 left in the game. 

Gordon made his first, missed his second and was called for a violation on his third, putting the ball back in F&M's hands. Eggers was immediately fouled and connected on one-of-two from the line to make it 63-60 and a last second attempt by the Blue Jays came too late as time expired. 

F&M started out with a 14-5 lead five minutes into the contest before Hopkins went on a 9-0 run over the next six minutes and tied the game at 14-14. Federici scored five straight to put F&M back on top and a Tate layup at 7:02 made it 24-15. Johns Hopkins answered with a 7-0 run to come within two, 24-22, and the teams traded buckets through the final five minutes of action with F&M leading 34-32 at the break. 

Federici hit 3-for-4 from behind the arc and scored 16 in the first while Tate added 10 on 4-for-7 shooting. 

Johns Hopkins quickly tied the game at 36-36 early in the second and F&M responded with a 10-2 spurt and took an eight point, 46-38 lead at 13:44. Hopkins stayed within two possessions throughout most of the second half and the Diplomats led by seven with 6:23 on the clock. Hopkins countered by outscoring F&M 11-3 to take its only lead of the game, which set up the final 1:34 of action. 

Federici finished with a game-high 20 points and Tate netted 14 and added six steals. Eggers scored 12 while Cedric Moune hauled in eight boards to along with 12 points. Lionel Owona had nine rebounds five assists and two blocks for the Diplomats. 

Ryan Curran, Matt Billups and Jess Flannery all finished with 14 for Hopkins and Gene Williams contributed 10.

F&M returns to action on Saturday when the Diplomats travel to Washington for a 2:00 p.m. contest.