LANCASTER, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team earned a gutsy 77-73 win on the road over Franklin & Marshall on Thursday night in Centennial Conference action.
 
 
With the win, the Bears improved to 12-6 overall and 7-4 in Centennial Conference action as they earned a season sweep of the Diplomats for the second-straight year. Meanwhile, the Diplomats fell to 9-9 overall and 4-7 in Centennial Conference action.
 
 
Senior Ryan Hughes did a little of everything for the Bears as he recorded his first double-double of the season with a team-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. Hughes also added five assists, a career-high four blocks, and one steal in the win. Junior Trevor Wall posted 18 points behind going 6-of-8 from the field and dished out two assists while freshman Nick Nocito tallied 16 points off the bench after hitting five three-pointers.
 
 
Ursinus jumped out to an early 10-5 advantage at the 14:19-mark of the first half before the Diplomats took the lead back at 13-12 behind an 8-2 burst. After some back and forth action over the next three minutes, F&M took its largest lead of the game at 27-21 with 8:10 left in the first half after scoring eight-straight points. Ursinus clawed their way back and took the lead back at 34-33 following a layup from sophomore Cole Grubbs with 2:17 left in the first half. The lead switched back twice in the final two minutes before the Diplomats took a 37-36 advantage into halftime after a successful jumper with one second left.
 
 
F&M opened the second half with back-to-back layups to go up 41-36 at the 18:35-mark, but the Bears caught fire and ran off 12-straight points to go up 48-41 with 13:15 left in the second half. Ursinus went 5-of-6 from the field in that stretch and did not allow the Diplomats to score for a span of 5:52. The Bears extended their lead to 52-45 at the 11:55-mark and allowed just one F&M field goal in a span of 8:58. After baskets were traded between the squads, Hughes used a second chance layup to give the Bears their largest lead of the game up until that point at 60-51 with 6:58 left in regulation. The Diplomats cut the deficit down to 60-57 at the 4:29 mark before Nocito drilled a three-pointer on the Bears ensuing possession to end the momentum. Nocito then cashed in from deep again with 1:53 left in the second half to put Ursinus up double digits for the first time at 69-59. F&M took advantage of a pair of Bear turnovers and quickly cut a 71-59 deficit down to 71-66 with 49 seconds left. Fortunately for the Bears, Wall and Hughes combined to go 6-of-8 from the free throw line in the final minute to close out the Diplomats.
 

The Bears shot 48.3 percent (29-of-60) from the field and just 27.3 percent (6-of-22) from three-point range. Ursinus went 13-of-19 (68.4%) from the free throw line and scored 21 points off 18 Diplomat turnovers. Meanwhile, the Diplomats went 28-of-69 (40.6%) from the field after shooting just 31.7 percent in the second half. F&M shot 28.6 percent (6-of-21) from three-point range and went 11-of-18 (61.1%) from the free throw line. The Diplomats held a 43-38 rebounding advantage with 16 being offensive rebounds which led to a sizable 16-7 edge in second chance points.
 
 
Josh Parra led all scorers on the floor with a game-high 22 points and completed his double-double with 13 rebounds. Kevin Nowoswiat added 21 points off the bench and four rebounds in the loss.
 
 
Ursinus returns to action on Saturday, January 28th as they will host Dickinson at 3:00 p.m. in Centennial Conference action