The Diplomats moved into sole possession of first place in the CC regular season title race as Johns Hopkins University (14-8, 11-5 CC) lost 63-60 at home to Gettysburg College (14-9, 11-5 CC). Further, Ursinus (14-9, 11-5 CC) defeated Haverford (11-11, 10-6 CC) 76-68 to clinch a playoff spot as F&M, Hopkins, Gettysburg and the Bears will appear in the five team tournament. Haverford can clinch the fifth and final spot in its next game as the Fords travel to Dickinson on February 19.
F&M (17-6, 12-4 Centennial Conference) can clinch the #1 seed and hosting rights for the 2005 Centennial Conference Championship Tournament by defeating Washington College (9-14, 6-10 CC) on February 19 at the Mayser Center. Franklin & Marshall can clinch the spot due to the fact that Hopkins and Ursinus play each other on February 19, giving one team another loss. If F&M concluded the season in either a two, three or four team tie for the #1 seed, F&M will win the tiebreaker as the Diplomats are the only team to sweep Gettysburg this year and thus hold the breaker against Hopkins, Ursinus, Gettysburg and Haverford.
Against McDaniel (5-18, 3-13 CC), Franklin & Marshall scored early and often against the Green Terror as F&M responded to a 2-0 McDaniel lead with an 11-0 run to take an 11-2 lead with 16:32 left in the first half.
The teams traded lay-ups before guard Jackiem Wright drained a three-pointer to ignite an 11-2 run as the Diplomats led 24-7 with 12:56 left in the half.
McDaniel failed to cut the lead below 15 points for the remainder of the half as the Diplomats carried a 42-20 lead into the locker room.
After the break, the Diplomats came out firing as forward Bryan Teschke and Outerbridge dropped in lay-ups to push the margin out to 26 points at 46-20 with 19:25 left on the game clock.
Leading by as many as 30 points with 12:11 on the clock, the Diplomats coasted to the 13-point victory.
For F&M, Wright finished with 10 points and a game high five assists, while Teschke added 13 points and six rebounds and forward/guard Brandon Smith tacked on 12 points, a game high nine rebounds and three assists as Franklin & Marshall improved to 65-16 all-time against McDaniel since the series began in 1956.
Historically, Wright increased his career point total to 1,341 points as he surpassed Phil Hoeker ’89 (1,333) and Allen Taylor ’82 (1,338) to move into eighth place all-time in scoring at the College and fall 17 points shy of eclipsing Dennis Westley ’81 (1.357) for seventh place.
Further, Smith raised his career point total to 955 points in 83 games as he is on pace to become the 29th Diplomat to score 1,000 career points.
Sam Anstead led McDaniel with 15 points, while Kyle O’Conner added 14 and Mike Dipiero chipped in 11 points in the loss.
Franklin & Marshall (17-6, 12-4 Centennial Conference) will continue the season on February 19 in the Mayser Center versus Washington College. Game time is set for 4:00 p.m.