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GETTYSBURG, PA - Guard Jackiem Wright (Jr., Sicklerville, NJ/Moorestown Friends) led four players in double figures with 18 points off six-of-12 shooting from the floor and five-of-seven from beyond the arc to lead #19 ranked Franklin & Marshall College to a 68-52 win at Gettysburg College. Point guard Duran Searles (Jr., Camden, NJ/Peddie School) and center Steve Juskin (Jr., East Hanover, NJ/Hanover Park) added 11 points apiece as the Diplomats (19-3, 8-2 CC) moved into sole possession of first place in the CC West Division with three games remaining. Asaf Ganot (Sr., Tenafly, NJ/Tenafly) also hit double digits with 10 to help F&M snap a three-game losing streak at Bream Gymnasium and sweep the season series from the Bullets (11-11, 7-3 CC) for the first time since 1998-99. Brad Billmeier, Ryan Page and Todd Brady each scored a game-high 10 points for Gettysburg, which shot just 6-for-29 from 3-point range and lost for the first time in its last 12 conference home games. The Diplomats dominated in the game as F&M used a 10-0 run at the beginning of each half to the Bullets After falling into a 10-point hole in the game's first two minutes and burning a pair of timeouts, the Bullets went on a 15-4 run over a stretch of 7 minutes, 10 seconds to take their only lead of the game at 15-14. A jumper by Bob Lynch (So., Richboro, PA/Council Rock) on the Diplomats' possession put F&M ahead to stay and keyed a 12-4 burst that made it 26-19 following a Juskin layup with 4:37 left in the half. Wright's third triple of the first half pushed the lead to 32-23 before Brady converted a 3-point play to pull Gettysburg within 32-26 at the break. In the second half, the game was all Diplomats as Franklin & Marshall used five turnovers and five missed shots by the Bullets to jump out to an early double-digit second half lead. A layup and free throw by Frank Hughes (Sr., Annapolis, MD/US Naval Academy) made it 35-26 and a tip-in by Ganot pushed the lead to 11. Searles sandwiched three charity tosses around a layup by Juskin to cap the 10-0 burst and make it 42-26 with 15:23 left. Page halted the run and broke a 7-minute, 16-second scoring drought with a pull-up jumper from the baseline, but Wright answered by calmly draining another 3-pointer and assisting on a Ganot layup to make it 47-28. Brandon Smith (Fr., Reading, PA/Governor Mifflin) knocked down a trey to push the lead to 50-28 with 11:59 left and F&M led by as many as 29 en route to the victory. For the Bullets, leading scorer David Glaser was held to four points on the night, but did haul in a game-high nine rebounds. A key to the game was personal fouls as the Diplomats committed just 11 fouls to allow the Bullets to convert just four-of-six at the line. Conversely, Gettysburg fouled F&M 17 times to permit the Diplomats 14 points at the charity stripe, including a nine-of-11 performance by Searles. In addition, the Diplomats move two games ahead of Johns Hopkins University in the CC West as the Blue Jays were upset 71-50 at Swarthmore College. With a win versus Haverford College on Saturday, February 15 at home in the Mayser Center, the Diplomats will clinch a berth in the Centennial Conference playoffs. The game will mark the 100th season of basketball celebration for the College as the All-Era and All-Time times for the last 100 years of Diplomat basketball will be introduced. Game time is set for 4:00 p.m.
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