Box Score Green Terror scores 18 of final 20 to best No. 18 Diplomats,
61-53
WESTMINSTER, Md. – Marcus Dyson (Scotch
Plains, N.J./Union Catholic) recorded all but two points, four
rebounds and one block of his 12-point, 9-rebound, 4-blocked shot
game in the second half to propel McDaniel to a 61-53 victory over
18th-ranked Franklin & Marshall in Centennial Conference (CC) men's
basketball action on Tuesday.
Devon
Lesniak (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) matched Dyson with 12
points in a balanced attack for the Green Terror (6-7, 3-3 CC), who
defeated the Diplomats (10-3, 5-1 CC) for the fifth straight time
at the Gill Center.
Louis
Sarris-Grau (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Lower Moreland) and Cullen
Murray-Kemp (Trappe, Md./Easton) also reached double figures
with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Georgio Milligan paced the visitors with 19 points, including
hitting 11 of 14 attempts from the free-throw line. James McNally
added 14 points and nine rebounds.
In a game featuring the conference's top-ranked scoring offense
and top-ranked scoring defense, defense won out in the end with
McDaniel holding Franklin & Marshall to just two Milligan free
throws over the final 6:33 of the game.
Lesniak sparked the game-ending 18-2 run with a pair of free
throws at the 4:07 mark, helping the hosts claw out of an
eight-point deficit.
Sarris-Grau scored the game's next five points, including
converting his only free throw in five attempts with an
old-fashioned three-point play that closed the deficit to 51-50
with 3:17 on the clock.
Two Lesniak tosses from the charity stripe – part of a
9-for-10 showing – 48 seconds later turned the one-point
deficit into a one-point lead.
A Sarris-Grau putback off his own miss stretched the lead to
three with 1:48 showing before Milligan canned a pair from the
stripe 20 seconds later.
With 1:07 on the clock, Lesniak hit the second of two attempts
for a two-points lead and then stretched it to a two-possession
game with 33.4 seconds on the clock.
Michael
Jarboe (Monrovia, Md./Urbana) and Dyson each hit a pair in the
final 14.6 seconds to seal the eight-point win.
The two teams battled through a back-and-forth first half with
both squads building leads of four points.
Woody
Butler (Middletown, Md./Smithsburg) capped a 6-0 burst that put
the hosts on top 18-14 for their largest advantage of the first
half with 8:38 on the clock.
The Diplomats' largest lead came with a pair of McNally free
throws that capped an 8-0 stretch at the 2:19 mark.
However, Christopher
Cowles' (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) only three points of
the game came on a trey in the corner with 1:05 on the first-half
clock before Sarris-Grau hit a layup to give the Green Terror a
26-25 halftime lead.
McDaniel, however, would miss eight straight shots through the
nearly eight-minute stretch in the second half that allowed
Franklin & Marshall to build a 40-31 lead.
The teams exchanged scores over 3-minute, 34-second span to keep
it an eight-point game at 51-43 with 6:33 on the clock before the
hosts made the run.
Sarris-Grau added eight rebounds and four blocked shots while
Butler chipped in six points and six rebounds.
McDaniel returns to action at Haverford on Thursday. Game time
is 8 p.m.
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