McNally, F&M swamp Shoremen

Franklin & Marshall's men's basketball team has a long memory.

And because they do, the Diplomats made short work of Centennial Conference foe Washington College (Md.) Tuesday night at Mayser Center.

Continuing his assault on the Diplomat record book, James McNally scored a game-best 22 points, Georgio Milligan added 21, Brandon Beckford 11 and Max Brewer 10 as F&M avenged last year's rare home loss to Washington, 84-57, in the conference opener for both teams.

"They came to our court last season and took it to us on our home floor," said McNally, who is seventh all-time on the Diplomats men's all-time scoring list with 1,481 points and is on pace to pass career leader Donnie Marsh (1,695).

"It was definitely on our minds. We had a score to settle."

"We had to be up, it was a conference game," said Diplomat coach Glenn Robinson, who is one victory shy of tying Lefty Driesell (786) on the men's basketball all-time career list.

F&M (3-0) was up from the start, leading by as much as 45-25 in the first half and by 47-29 at the break. Milligan and McNally sparked the early surge with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Beckford added 11 as the Diplomats claimed control early and never looked back.

Kevin Breslin led the Shoremen (1-4) with 13 points and Andy Namick added 11.

Last season, Washington dealt F&M its first home loss, a 68-63 overtime decision on Jan. 14. It was just one of two home defeats the Diplomats endured en route to an eventual Elite Eight berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

The Diplomats defense set the tone, holding the Shoremen scoreless for the first three minutes of the game and without a field goal for nearly the first four minutes. F&M jumped to a 7-0 lead and never trailed. Washington was limited to 31 percent shooting from the floor and turned the ball over 11 times in the decisive first half.

The Diplomats pushed their advantage to a game-high 29 points in the second half. McNally and Milligan picked up where they had left off at the break, scoring 10 and eight points, respectively.

For the game, Washington was held to 34 percent shooting from the floor and committed 23 turnovers. Milligan contributed with five steals and four blocks and Mike Baker added a pair of blocks and steals.

"I thought our defense was good for the entire time the game was in doubt," Robinson said. "Georgio was unbelievable on both ends of the floor. He did a great job on Breslin (21 ppg. average going in) and anybody else he was guarding. Georgio just had a magnificent game."

Milligan surpassed the 900-points mark for his career and is now at 901. He dished out a game-high six assists and is 51 shy of becoming the fifth player in Centennial history to reach 400 for his career.

McNally passed a career milestone as well with his 700th rebound and now has 705, fifth-best in team history. Now 19 points away from 1,500, he's on pace to join Terry Scott as the only player in team history to record 1,500 points and 700 boards.

"James had a slow start offensively and defensively (Tuesday) but, boy, did he pick it up," Robinson said.

"We never take a play off," McNally said. "We came out ready to go and even in he second half, we played like it was a tie game."

Notes: Baker is five rebound shy of 600 for his career. … F&M's next game is a non-conference outing Saturday at St. Mary's (Md.). The Diplomats' next Centennial game is Dec. 1 at Ursinus.

egruver@lnpnews.com