Mount men's basketball team comes up short in 74-69 road loss at Franklin College

Host Franklin College overcame two late Lions' runs down the stretch to pull out a 74-69 win tonight over the Mount. The Lions slip to 6-8 overall, 2-5 in the HCAC and will host conference-rival Defiance College on Jan. 14.

The Grizzlies bolted out to a 36-29 advantage at the half, thanks to out-shooting the Lions, 65 percent to 39 percent from the field, and connecting on nine-of-10 free throw attempts in the opening half. The two teams battled closely in the early part of the second half, as VJ Evans (Dayton, OH/Chaminade-Julienne) got the Mount to within one of the lead, 46-45, at 12:40 when he made a basket. Franklin pushed their lead out to 51-46 with 11:26 to play, as they were effective from both the free throw line and long range during that stretch.

The Mount, however, made another run at the lead, cutting the deficit to 53-52 on a layup by Lee Gallenstein (Maysville, KY/St. Patrick) with 9:29 left in the game. After two more ties, at 55-all and 57-all, Franklin College would pull away, 60-57 and then 62-57 with five minutes left in the game. Evans' jump shot cut the score to 63-62 with 2:59 to play but the Mount would get no closer as the Grizzlies jumped back out to a 69-62 lead. The Mount missed a game-tying three point attempt with six seconds left in the game. Franklin connected on 19-of-27 second half free throws while the Mount was nine-of-12 from the charity stripe in the second half.

Andy Countryman (Peebles, OH/Peebles) led the Lions with a career-high 23 points while teammate Donald Bush (Cincinnati, OH/North College Hill) came off the bench to add 11 points. David Mann (Fairfield, OH/Cincinnati Christian) and Evans chipped in 10 points each. Evans also had four rebounds and three assists. David Lane (Hamilton, OH/Ross) recorded six assists.