F&M stifles Swarthmore

By JOEL SCHREINER
Correspondent

How good has the Franklin & Marshall defense been lately?

It's climbed to third-best in the country (56.2 points per game) after holding three of its last four opponents to under 50 points.

Saturday afternoon, the Diplomats made it four out of the last five when they blasted Swarthmore, 77-47, at Mayser Center, where they have won 11 of 12 games this season.

The win is F&M's fifth straight and improves its Centennial Conference record to 10-2 (16-3 overall), which is good for a one-game lead over Ursinus and Muhlenberg, the next two teams on the Diplomat schedule.

In limiting Swarthmore to its second-lowest scoring night of the season, the F&M defense held the Garnet to just 14 buckets, on 30-percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers.

Despite that, Anthony Brooks was not completely satisfied.

"To be honest, it could have been better," he said, before admitting it was, in fact, really good.

"Coach has driven into us to be a defense-oriented team because the offense will come easy," added Brooks, who scored nine points, including seven from the free-throw line. "Today's just another game that shows we're a great defensive team."

Will Gates hit a 3-pointer to give Swarthmore (4-8, 5-14) a 3-0 lead 63 seconds into the game. After that, the Garnet scored only 11 points the remainer of the half.

Swarthmore shot a dismal 5-for-21 and had nine turnovers in the opening half and was held scoreless during a 5:53 stretch when the Diplomats ran off 10 straight points to start blowing the game wide open.

"I was pleased with how we settled down on offense," F&M coach Glenn Robinson said. "Early on, we were kind of rushing things, but then we really settled down and got the ball inside to our big men and ultimately got them in a lot of foul trouble and we got a lot of layups."

James McNally scored eight of his team-high 19 points in the first half when F&M took a 30-14 lead into the locker room.

McNally finished with a game-high 11 rebounds, while recording a steal, blocked shot and a steal.

"He helps you in so many ways," Robinson said of McNally. "He has a very good head for basketball. He knows what's going to happen before it happens."

McNally's eight in the first half was matched by Hayk Gyokchyan, who came off the bench and finished with 12 points, his second-best output of the season.

"He gave us a lift both halves," Robinson said of the 6-foot-8 freshman, who grabbed seven boards and blocked two shots. "He played very well. He's coming on like crazy. In a lot of situations he's as good as the starters and he's really helped us a lot."

A Gyokchyan bucket gave the Diplomats a 53-33 lead with 9:12 to play and started a 14-3 run that pushed the lead to 65-36. F&M kept pouring it on and led by as many as 37 (77-40) with 2:58 to go.

"We've had a couple games where we came out flat and let teams hang around with us," Brooks said. "We don't want to do that, we want to come out strong from the beginning, play hard defense and win the games we're supposed to."

Mike Baker added 12 points, while Georgio Milligan contributed 10 for the Diplomats, who are now 15-0 when three or more players reach double figures.