The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team has played better in each of its last two games after its season-opening drubbing at the hands of Messiah. Monday night in the Chargers' home opener, they hoped to put everything together and upset 17th ranked Franklin & Marshall.

The Diplomats had other ideas and used a 22-6 run in the middle of the first half to pull away from the Chargers and extend LBC's losing streak to four games by winning, 57-40. Georgio Milligan had a game-high 16 points for the Diplomats, shooting 5-of-6 from the field, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

F & M jumped out to an early 9-3 lead, but the Chargers responded with a 6-0 run thanks to a Corey Leonard layup and two quick buckets by Andrew Risser. The Diplomats would take over from there and score 22 of the next 28 points over the next 10 minutes.

"We didn't shoot very well tonight," Chargers' Head Coach Pete Beers said. "Give F & M credit for that. We need more composure when we run our offense and could still hit the boards a bit harder."

Darrell Epps led LBC with 11 points, while Risser added eight points and five rebounds. Keith Keltner had four points, two rebounds and two assists for the Chargers who are 0-4 for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

Despite the loss, Beers said there were good aspects of the Chargers' game, specifically the plus-8 turnover margin. LBC had turned the ball over 73 times in its first three games, but only committed 14 turnovers on Monday and forced 22 Diplomats' turnovers.

"We protected the ball much better and to only have four tunovers in the first half is really good," Beers said.

Beers was also pleased with the energy that many of the players brought on Monday.

"Kurt Keltner got on the floor and made a couple of great plays and I thought Risser brought a lot of energy tonight," Beers said.

Beers said he continues to see improvements in the team and said Wednesday's practice will be a good indicator as to what type of team this year's squad will be.

"We will find out on Tuesday if we are going to play well on Thursday night," Beers said. "If the guys come in ready to work and to correct mistakes, we will be fine, if not, it could be a long week. Tonight was a step and we were competitive for a while with a good team. Now, if we clean up our play, how good could we be? Hopefully we will find out."

The Chargers travel to Washington, D.C. on Thursday night to face NEAC foe, Gallaudet. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.