F&M men rally to beat Gettysburg, 70-62

You play a team some 200 times in a series that dates back more than 100 years, and you figure there's a pretty good rivalry there.

Perhaps, in the case of Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg, more than just pretty good.

"It is," Diplomats coach Glenn Robinson said, "a dogfight."

And it was again Wednesday night at Mayser Center. Rallying from deficits of 32-30 at halftime and 51-48 with just over six minutes left, No. 15 F&M fought its way to a physical, 70-62 Centennial Conference victory.

Swingman Brandon Beckford and guard Georgio Milligan scored 16 points apiece to pace the Diplomats, who improved to 3-0 in the Centennial and 6-1 overall. Forwards James McNally and Mike Baker added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Center Andrew Powers pumped in a game-high 20 to lead the Bullets (2-2, 4-3). Guards Stephen Poarch and Alex Zurn added 13 and 12 points, respectively.

"Conference games are always tough, so this was a big win," said Beckford, whose 12 second-half points tied the total produced by Milligan and fueled F&M's 40-30 scoring advantage.

"It took awhile for us to get our offense untracked," Beckford said. "We came out strong in the second half."

Beckford helped ignite F&M's second-half surge with a layup that tied matters and followed shortly thereafter with a corner 3-pointer.

"That," Robinson said of the trey that tied the game at 39, " was a big shot."

The kind Beckford, a sophomore from Hackensack, N.J., doesn't shy away from.

"My teammates know I can knock it down if I have an open shot," Beckford said.

Said Robinson, "He's growing into the game."

Displaying a considerable amount of ice water in his veins, Beckford drained both ends of a one-and-one with 1:53 left to finally give F&M some breathing room at 59-56. With the score tied at 55, Baker's steal, his game-high fourth, and layup led to a momentum-changing three-point play.

Milligan took matters into his own hands in the final 90 seconds. His lane jumper put F&M up by five, and he quickly followed with a steal, two free throws, a forced turnover and a shot block. F&M scored 10 of the final 13 points to clinch the win.

Powers, who moved into fifth place on Gettysburg's career scoring list Saturday, owned a game-high 10 points at halftime to lift the Bullets to a 32-30 lead. The first 20 minutes featured nine lead changes. F&M's biggest lead early was 22-19 following McNally's basket and subsequent block of Powers with 4:49 left.

Powers and Zurn fueled Gettysburg's 13-8 run over the final four minutes of the first half.

"This (rivalry) goes back far enough and a lot of that time, one or the other has won the conference," said Robinson, whose squad was the Centennial coaches' choice to finish No. 1 in the conference while Gettysburg was picked to place second.

"Usually, you have two pretty good teams going at it."

As was the case Wednesday.

Notes: Wednesday's game marked the 206th meeting between F&M and Gettysburg in a series that dates back to 1903. The Bullets own a 107-92 advantage. The Diplomats won all three meetings last season, including the conference title game. … McNally tied former F&M star and current Diplomat assistant Brandon Smith (2006) for fifth on the team's career scoring list with 1,543 points. … Robinson is 12 wins shy of career victory No. 800. … Milligan needs 26 points to become the 30th member of F&M's 1,000-point club.

egruver@lnpnews.com