LANCASTER, Pa. – McDaniel scored eight of the final 12 points to escape Franklin & Marshall with a 64-60 Centennial Conference (CC) women's basketball victory on Monday.

Karli Zeps (Reisterstown, Md./Seton Keough) paced the Green Terror (14-3, 9-1 CC) with a season-best 20 points while Jasmine Smith (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Polytechnic Institute) added a career-best 19 points, including going 8-for-10 from the free-throw line. Lindsey Nichols (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark's) rounded out a trio in double figures with 18 points.

Sarah Haddon led the Diplomats (4-13, 3-8 CC) with 26 points while Lindsey Powers added 22 of her own.

Nichols halted a 7-minute, 24-second drought from the floor, driving for a layup with 1:34 on the clock to put the visitors back in front.

Brittney Davis (Laurel, Md./St. Vincent Pallotti) hit the second of two free throws to extend the lead to 59-56 with 44.5 seconds on the clock before Haddon took a bounce pass on the right block and converted the layup to make it a one-point game with 38.8 ticks left.

Smith hit five of her six free-throw attempts in the final 37.6 seconds to secure the victory.

McDaniel jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind baskets from Smith and Nichols in the game's first 1:54.

Franklin & Marshall responded with three straight jumpers to take a 6-4 lead just a minute later.

Trailing 12-11, Melanie Yeomans (Brunswick, Md./South Hagerstown) hit a jumper to spark a 6-0 run that gave the visitors a 17-12 advantage with 8:16 to play in the second quarter.

After Zeps made it a 25-20 game with 3:57 showing, the Diplomats scored the final seven points of the half. A Shannon O'Connor putback layup from the left side just before the final horn gave the hosts a two-point edge at the intermission.

Keyed by four points each from Smith and Nichols, McDaniel tallied the first 10 points of the third quarter to open up a 35-27 advantage with 7:15 showing.

A Powers 3-pointer snapped the scoreless drought 4 minutes, 5 seconds into the period to trim the margin to five.

The lead extended to 44-32 on back-to-back Zeps layups with 3:21 remaining in the third quarter.

However, a Haddon putback and Powers steal-and-layup once again closed the Franklin & Marshall deficit to eight with 2:48 on the clock.

Two Nichols free throws and a Smith layup extended the lead as large as 14 at 54-40 just 62 seconds into the fourth period.

Powers tallied 11 points to key a 16-2 run that tied the game. A Haddon driving layup with 1:53 showing evened the contest.

The Green Terror returns to action at Gettysburg on Wednesday. Game time is 6 p.m.

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