Box Score
LANCASTER, Pa. - Sophomore guard J.D. Byers (Westminster, Md./Westminster) scored a game-high 26 points but No. 20 Franklin & Marshall defeated Lebanon Valley 75-70 in a back-and-forth battle Monday evening in the Mayser Center.
Senior forward Bob Lynch scored a team-high 18 points for F&M (12-1), which won its 12th consecutive game after losing its season-opener. Senior guard Asaf Ganot hauled in a game-high nine rebounds for the Diplomats.
Byers, who also tied a career-high in scoring, hit on 9-of-13 shots, including 5-of-8 beyond the arc.
LVC (6-6) shot 50.0 percent (24-of-48) for the game but was out-rebounded 38-27. With senior center Darren Pugh (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) on the bench with foul trouble most of the second half, the Diplomats capitalized by out-rebounding the Dutchmen 21-11, including 12-2 on the offensive glass.
Neither side led by more than eight throughout the game and F&M’s seven-point edge (71-64) with 1:14 remaining following junior guard Jackiem Wright’s long jumper was the largest lead of the second half. There were a total of 23 lead changes and six ties in the contest.
The Dutchmen led 61-58 with 6:21 remaining after a fast-break three-pointer from Byers, but that’s when the Diplomats began to pull away. F&M went on a late 13-3 run and held LVC to just two field goals the rest of the way.
A pair of free throws by Wright put the Dips ahead 73-67 with 21 seconds left, but LVC cut it to three (73-70) eight seconds later when junior guard Evan Harlor (Danville, Pa./Danville) knocked down his second three-pointer in the final minute. But junior guard Duran Searles put the game away with a pair of free throws with 11 seconds to go.
The Dutchmen trailed 18-14 midway through the opening period before junior forward Jeff Kline (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) sparked an 11-0 LVC run with baseline jumper with 7:48 to go in the half. LVC led by as much as eight (30-22) with 1:28 remaining after Byers dropped in a three.
During one stretch in the opening half Lebanon Valley held the high-scoring Diplomats, who entered the game averaging 90.8 points per game, scoreless over a 4:27 span.
Harlor finished with 15 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting for LVC. Freshman forward Dave Kasyan (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) added eight points while Pugh contributed a team-high six rebounds in just 23 minutes.
The Valley returns to Commonwealth Conference action on Wednesday when it travels to Albright College at 8 p.m.
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