BALTIMORE – Johns Hopkins defeated No. 16 Franklin & Marshall 74-69 in Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball Saturday afternoon.  F&M dropped to 18-4 with a 13-2 mark in CC action and the Blue Jays improved to 11-11, 8-7 CC. 

F&M led 62-54 with 6:44 left in the game before the Blue Jays went on a 14-6 run over the next five minutes and tied the game at 68-68 with 1:20 on the clock and  continued the run with four straight and went up 72-68 with just 16 ticks left. Brandon Federici hit one from the line to make it 72-69 and the Sam Gordon put the game away with two from the stripe to secure the win for Hopkins.

The Diplomats took an early 13-6 lead on a Cedric Moune layup five minutes into the game and a Hunter Eggers triple made it 19-8 at 13:42. The Blue Jays came within a point, 22-21, and the teams exchanged points over the next few minutes with F&M leading 30-29. Hopkins answered with an 8-0 run and went up 37-30 at 2:23 and the Diplomats countered by outscoring the Blue Jays 9-1 to take a 39-38 lead into the break.

Hopkins retook the lead, 45-44, early in the second before Moune and Eggers led F&M on a 13-2 run to put the Diplomats up 10, 57-47, with 10:57 left in the game. The Blue Jays chipped away at the lead and made it a five-point game, 57-52, at 9:11 and the Diplomats went up eight at 6:44, which set up the Blue Jays game-deciding run.

Federici finished with a team-high 19 points and Moune hauled in eight rebounds to go along with 17 points. Eggers shot 7-for-15 with 16 points and Matthew Tate contributed 12 for F&M.

Ryan Curran led the Blue Jays with 19 points and Gene Williams netted 14. Sam Gordon and Matt Billups both netted 12 for Hopkins.

Hopkins outshot F&M 51-39-pecent and held a 39-25 edge on the glass.

F&M wrap up the regular season next week with three games on the schedule. The Diplomats face Ursinus on Monday before hosting Gettysburg on Wednesday and taking on Dickinson at Mayser on Saturday.