LANCASTER, Pa. – The Ursinus men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 70-68 win on the road over Franklin & Marshall on Tuesday night in their Centennial Conference opener.
With the win, the Bears improved to 3-1 overall on the season and 1-0 in Centennial action. Meanwhile, the Diplomats fell to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in conference action.
Senior Ryan Hughes posted his second-straight double-double with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds. Hughes also picked up two steals and one assist in the win. Sophomore Trevor Wall continued his strong stretch with 14 points and dished out a team-high four assists. Junior Kyle Maurer added 13 points, three rebounds, and two assists while freshman Cole Grubbs hauled in a team-high 12 rebounds.
The first half featured competitive action between the two teams as neither team was able to build a lead by more than four points. The lead changed hands 15 times in the opening 20 minutes and featured four ties. The Bears held a lead by as large as three points early in the first five minutes of the first half at 10-7. F&M went on a short 7-2 run to take a 14-12 lead at the 14:07-mark before freshman Marlin Wise put Ursinus back in front at 15-14 with a three-pointer. The Bears countered four-straight Diplomat points with five-straight of their own to take a 20-18 advantage with 9:05 left in the first half following a three-pointer from Maurer. The teams traded points over the next five minutes before the Diplomats reeled off five-straight points to take their largest lead of the first half at 31-27. Ursinus was able to work its way down to a two-point deficit at the half, 33-31.
The Bears struggled to open the second half as they went 2-of-9 from the field in the first 5:03 which allowed the Diplomats to take a six-point at 41-35. Ursinus battled back with an 7-2 run to cut the deficit to 43-42 at the 12:45-mark of the second half. F&M countered with seven-straight points to take their largest lead of the game at 49-42 with 11 minutes left in regulation, but the Bears quickly erased that deficit to tie the game at 49 just two minutes later. The Diplomats used a 7-1 run to go up 56-51 at the 7:39-mark before the Bears struck back yet again with a 7-2 burst to tie the game at 58 following a game-tying three-pointer from senior Peyton Vostenak. Hughes put Ursinus in front for the first time in the second half with a layup at the 5:16-mark, and Vostenak came up big once again from beyond the arc just over a minute later with a three-pointer to put the Bears up 63-60. Leading 65-63 with under two minutes left in regulation, Hughes drained a three-pointer from the right side following brilliant ball movement to give the Bears a 68-63 advantage at the 1:14-mark. The Diplomats responded with a three-pointer of their own to make it a 68-66 contest, but Wall drove the lane and delivered a layup for the Bears over two Diplomat defenders to put Ursinus up 70-66 with 31 seconds left in regulation. F&M quickly answered with a layup of their own and quickly fouled Wall to send him to the line for a one-and-one. Wall missed the first layup, but freshman Sean Neylon cut off a driving Josh Parra to the basket and forced a missed layup that Hughes recovered. Hughes also missed the front end of his one-and-one to give the Diplomats one last chance to either tie or win the game, but a desperation three-pointer came up well short.
Ursinus went 41.9 percent (26-of-62) from the field and shot 31 percent (9-of-29) from three-point range. The Bears went a solid 9-of-11 (81.8%) from the free throw line despite the last two misses and scored 11 points off 10 F&M turnovers. Meanwhile, the Diplomats shot 39.1 percent (27-of-69) from the field and 33.3 percent (8-of-24) from beyond the arc. F&M struggled at the charity stripe by going just 6-of-22 (27.3%) and held a 49-40 edge in rebounds that led to a 14-7 advantage in second chance points.
Parra led the Diplomats with a double-double behind a game-high 23 points and 14 rebounds while Omar Nichols added 20 points behind six three-pointers. Josh Seidman posted 12 points and a game-high six assists in the loss.
The Bears return to action one week from now on Tuesday, November 30th as they will host Muhlenberg at 8 p.m. for the Freeze Out Helfferich game.