Men's Basketball No Match for No. 14 Franklin & Marshall, 77-59

LANCASTER, Pa. - Junior Will Gates led all scorers with 21 points, but No. 14 Franklin & Marshall (21-2, 14-2) used its stingy defense and highly-efficient offense to defeat the Swarthmore College men's basketball team (2-21, 2-14) by a score of 77-59 on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Marc Rogalski finished with nine points and a team-high six rebounds while sophomore Jordan Federer added six points and three assists.

Centennial Conference Player of the Year candidate Georgio Milligan led the Diplomats with 20 points, five steals and four assists. Hayk Gyokchyan (15) and Matt Porter (12) also finished in double-figures.

The first-place Dips got it done on both ends of the floor; the defense --  ranked No. 1 in the nation in opponents' scoring average  -- held the Garnet to just 32 percent shooting for the game while the offense shot 50 percent (29-of-58) for the afternoon.

Franklin & Marshall took control early, going ahead 12-3  on a Joe Salandra dunk just three minutes into the game. From that point on, the Dips lead hovered between nine and 11 points before pulling away late in the half.  Thanks to a 10-0 run over a three-minute span, the F&M lead stretched to 40-19 with 4:25 remaining in the half.

Behind four points from Federer and a triple from Gates, Sawt responded with an 8-0 run to cut the advantage to 40-27 with less than one minute remaining in the half. Still, the Dips took back the upper-hand in the waning seconds of the half, as Gyokchyan drilled a three-pointer at the buzzer to extend the lead to 43-27 at the break, killing the Garnet rally in the process.

In the second half, hot-shooting Franklin & Marshall (56.5 percent) extended its lead to 31 points to put the game out of reach midway through play. Despite the large deficit, Swarthmore battled until the final moments, closing the game out on a 17-4 run to bring the contest to its 77-59 final.

The Dips controlled the paint, outscoring the Garnet 48-12 around the basket.

Swarthmore hits the road for the final time in 2012 when it travels to McDaniel on Wednesday. Play is set to begin at 7:00 p.m.