VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Hayk Gyokchyan scored eight of his career-high 18 point in the decisive run as No. 18 Franklin & Marshall defeated North Carolina Wesleyan 69-56 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night. The Diplomats will face host Virginia Wesleyan tomorrow evening at 7:00 pm. The No. 10 Marlins defeated Delaware Valley 93-63 in the second game of the evening.
Tickets will be available one hour before the game at the Virginia Wesleyan box office.
Milligan finished with a game-high 22 points on 7-for-14 shooting. He added four assists and three steals. Gyokchyan's points came from 6-for-7 shooting on the floor and 6-for-9 shooting from the stripe. Mike Baker picked up his ninth double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 boards. James McNally added nine points.
Domarius Thomas paced the Battling Bishops with 21 points and Matt Dougherty added 11.
The game started out slow as both teams struggled to hit their shots. F&M held a slight lead, 14-11, at 11:04 before N.C. Wesleyan answered with a 7-2 run to take an 18-14 lead at 7:25. The Diplomats responded with five straight points to regain the lead at 19-18. Both teams traded buckets before F&M closed out the half on a 10-2 run to take a 32-25 edge into the break.
N.C. Wesleyan opened up the second stanza with an 11-3 run to take a 36-35 advantage at 14:51. Four lead changes and three ties ensued over next the eight minutes before Gyokchyan took over in the decisive run.
F&M outshot N.C. Wesleyan 46% to 40% and held a 36-31 advantage on the glass. The Diplomat shot almost 58% from two-point range.
Glenn Robinson moved up on the all-time NCAA wins lists. He passed Eddie Sutton and moved the 12th spot with 805 career victories.
N.CAROLINA WESLEYAN (21-7)
THOMAS, Domarius 8-12 3-4 21; DOUGHERTY, Matt 4-12 2-2 11; MORRISON, Joshua
3-8 1-3 8; MURRAY, Alex 2-6 4-4 8; NICHOLS, Devin 1-1 2-4 4; YARBROUGH, Ric 1-5 0-1 2; GRIFFITH, Justin 1-3 0-0 2; GURGANUS, David 0-0 0-0 0; SNOW, Cornelius 0-3 0-0 0; YARBOROUGH, Kimani 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-50 12-18 56.
FRANKLIN & MARSHALL (23-5)
Georgio Milligan 7-14 8-12 22; Hayk Gyokchyan 6-7 6-9 18; Mike Baker 5-9 0-0 10; James McNally 4-8 1-1 9; Max Brewer 1-4 2-3 5; Steve Tolliver 1-6 0-0 3; Brandon Beckford 1-6 0-0 2. Totals 25-54 17-25 69.
N.Carolina Wesleyan........... 25 31 - 56
Franklin & Marshall........... 32 37 - 69
3-point goals--N.Carolina Wesleyan 4-17 (THOMAS, Domarius 2-3; MORRISON, Joshua 1-4; DOUGHERTY, Matt 1-7; SNOW, Cornelius 0-3), Franklin & Marshall 2-14 (Steve Tolliver 1-6; Max Brewer 1-2; Brandon Beckford 0-3; Georgio Milligan 0-3).
Fouled out--N.Carolina Wesleyan-MURRAY, Alex, Franklin & Marshall-None.
Rebounds--N.Carolina Wesleyan 31 (MURRAY, Alex 6), Franklin & Marshall 36 (Mike Baker 11).
Assists--N.Carolina Wesleyan 10 (MURRAY, Alex 2; GURGANUS, David 2; SNOW, Cornelius 2), Franklin & Marshall 10 (Georgio Milligan 4).
Total fouls--N.Carolina Wesleyan 20, Franklin & Marshall 13.
Technical fouls--N.Carolina Wesleyan-None, Franklin & Marshall-None.
A-589
NCAA Division III first round game