COLLEGEVILLE, Pa.—No. 15 Franklin & Marshall overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat Ursinus 78-69 in Centennial Conference (CC) men's basketball action Wednesday afternoon. The Diplomats improved to 4-1 (2-0 CC) while the Bears fell to 2-3 (1-1 CC).

Trailing 41-27 with 1:27 remaining in the first half, F&M scored seven unanswered points to go into the break down seven, 41-34. The Diplomats picked up where they left off, starting the second half with a 14-2 run to take a 48-43 edge, a lead they never gave up.

The Diplomats led by as much as 10 points in the second stanza, but Ursinus came within one twice, the last was 60-59 with 7:48 left. From there, F&M went on a short 9-2 run to go up 69-61 with 4:21 left and never looked back.

F&M was paced by Georgio Milligan who had 24 points. Milligan was one of four Diplomats to reach double figures. Brandon Beckford scored a career-high 18 points and pulled down seven boards. James McNally scored all 16 of his points in the second half and finished with five rebounds. Mike Baker chipped in with 10 points for the Diplomats and went over 600 career rebounds, collecting five.

McNally went over 1,500 career points in the contest.  He passed Jeremiah Henry '96 for the sixth spot on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,513. McNally has assistant coach Brandon Smith '06 in his sights for the fifth spot. Smith finished his career with 1,543.

Coach Glenn Robinson continues his quest of 800 career victories and tied Lefty Driesell for the 13th spot on the all-time NCAA coaching victories list with 786.

The Diplomats will board a plane early tomorrow morning to head to St. Louis, Missouri for the 27th Lopata Classic hosted by Washington University. F&M will face Claremont on Friday and Tsinghua University (China) on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 4:00 p.m. (CST).

FRANKLIN & MARSHALL 78, URSINUS 69

FRANKLIN & MARSHALL (4-1, 2-0 CC)
Georgio Milligan 8-14 6-13 24; Brandon Beckford 6-13 3-4 18; James McNally 7-15 2-2 16; Mike Baker 4-6 2-2 10; Steve Tolliver 2-5 0-0 5; Max Brewer 1-5 0-0 3; Hayk Gyokchyan 1-2 0-1 2; Dave Balderston 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 29-60 13-24 78.

URSINUS (2-3, 1-1 CC)
Jon Ward 8-11 8-10 24; Matt Hilton 2-6 8-8 14; Kevin Janowski 5-9 0-2 12; Jesse Krasna 3-8 0-0 6; TJ Jones 1-3 2-2 4; Ryan Adams 2-8 0-0 4; Matt Donahue 1-4 0-0 3; JJ Rapczynski 1-3 0-0 2; Scott Niewiadomski 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-53 18-22 69.

Franklin & Marshall...........   34   44  -   78
Ursinus.......................   41   28  -   69

3-point goals--Franklin & Marshall 7-15 (Brandon Beckford 3-5; Georgio Milligan 2-4; Max Brewer 1-2; Steve Tolliver 1-4), Ursinus 5-18 (Kevin Janowski 2-3; Matt Hilton 2-5; Matt Donahue 1-3; Ryan Adams 0-3; JJ Rapczynski 0-2; Jesse Krasna 0-2).

Fouled out--Franklin & Marshall-Mike Baker, Ursinus-None.

Rebounds--Franklin & Marshall 34 (Brandon Beckford 7), Ursinus 35 (Jesse Krasna 7; Jon Ward 7).

Assists--Franklin & Marshall 19 (Georgio Milligan 6), Ursinus 11 (Jesse Krasna 5).

Total fouls--Franklin & Marshall 18, Ursinus 21.

Technical fouls--Franklin & Marshall-None, Ursinus-None.

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