{"id":50351,"date":"2025-03-06T03:25:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T03:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/?p=50351"},"modified":"2025-03-06T03:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T03:37:08","slug":"fm-wins-centennial-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/?p=50351","title":{"rendered":"F&M wins Centennial Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A dominant second-half performance paved the way for the ninth Centennial Conference Championship in program history for the (RV) Franklin & Marshall men’s basketball team (21-6, 11-2 Centennial), as the Diplomats defeated Johns Hopkins 60-47 at the Mayser Center on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

John Seidman earned Centennial Conference Tournament MVP honors, averaging 16.0 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game, shooting 45.8% on field goals and 57.1% on threes across the tournament weekend.<\/p>\n

Seidman led the offense on the day with 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots, and two steals. Josh Parra shot 6-of-7 (85.7%) on field goals, totaling 12 points and seven rebounds. Vakaris Grauslys was 3-of-5 (60.0%) on threes, posting 11 points and three assists. Kevin Nowoswiat scored eight points.<\/p>\n

Hopkins scored the first bucket of the game 45 seconds in, but F&M followed this with a 7-1 run with five points from Grauslys. After trading buckets for several minutes, the Blue Jays got back within a point at 11-10 with 12:06 to go. Following a Hopkins dunk to yet again reduce the gap to one, a Seidman three swiftly put F&M back in front 18-14. Over the next seven minutes, F&M maintained the pace, outsourcing the Blue Jays 6-4 in a low-scoring spell. Five points from Hopkins in the last 90 seconds left the halftime lead at 24-23. Both teams struggled from range in the first half, as F&M shot 3-of-16 (18.8%) and Hopkins went 2-of-13 (15.4%).<\/p>\n

As has become common this season, F&M soared away from their opponents to open the second half. A Grauslys three opened the half, while a Seidman block a possession later eventually led to a Parra layup, quickly putting the Diplomats ahead 29-23 inside of 45 seconds. Hopkins stalled the run for a couple minutes, reducing the gap to two. This was followed by the key momentum swing of the game, as F&M scored 12 unanswered points over the next five minutes in a run that featured five points from Steve Donahue. With 10:31 to go, the hosts led 41-27. <\/p>\n

The lead got as low as eight on three occasions, with the latest time coming with 3:25 to go. Hopkins converted a layup plus an and-one, but F&M struck right back with a Grauslys three. The Blue Jays’ next possession saw them draw a shooting foul beyond the arc, but they were only able to convert one of three chances for a 54-44 scoreline and 2:18 on the clock. The Diplomats denied Hopkins’ offense and took advantage of tactical fouls by converting on 6-of-6 free throws in the final two minutes, eventually winning 60-47.<\/p>\n

After struggling on threes in the first half, F&M was a clinical 6-of-12 (50.0%) in the second half. Across the 40 minutes, they kept turnovers to just six while forcing 14.<\/p>\n

Head coach Nick Nichay earns his first Centennial Conference Championship as head coach, while it’s the program’s ninth overall. It’s the first title since the 2015-16 season. The automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament marks the 26th time the Diplomats book a spot, while it’s the first trip for the program since 2017-18. <\/p>\n

With an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament, the Diplomats will learn their first and second-round regional pod during Monday’s selection show. The selection show will be streamed at NCAA.com on Monday, March 3, at 12:30 p.m. The 64-team, single-elimination tournament consists of 42 automatic qualifiers and 22 at-large bids. The first round is slated for Friday, March 7, while the second round (regional final) is scheduled for Saturday, March 8.<\/p>\n

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A dominant second-half performance paved the way for the ninth Centennial Conference Championship in program history for the (RV) Franklin & Marshall men’s basketball team (21-6, 11-2 Centennial), as the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50351"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50357,"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50351\/revisions\/50357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llleaguesportsvideos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}