Franklin & Marshall’s Derek Hines tipped in a missed shot at the buzzer to hand the Muhlenberg men’s basketball team an excruciating 65-64 loss.

The Mules (10-10, 6-8) would have taken sole possession of fifth place in the Centennial Conference with a win, but are now in a three-way tie for the final playoff spot with Haverford and McDaniel. Each team has four CC games remaining.

Muhlenberg trailed by 10 points, 40-30, early in the second half, before going on a 13-4 run to close to within one. Junior Chris Huber, sophomore Chris MacIntosh and senior Jimmy O’Brien all hit three-pointers in the run.

Another three-pointer, this one by freshman Michael Bernardini, tied the score at 50 with 8:50 left and kicked off a 10-0 run. Junior Jeff Stewart scored the other seven points with a three-point play and two putbacks, giving the Mules their biggest lead at 57-50 with 6:33 to play.

The Diplomats (10-11, 5-9) came right back to tie the score at 60 with 2:37 left. O’Brien drove in for a layup and completed a three-point play to put Muhlenberg ahead, 63-60, at the two-minute mark.

The Mules were still ahead, 64-63, when Stewart was called for an offensive foul with 36.7 seconds on the clock. He made up for it on defense, however, blocking F&M’s next shot attempt. Muhlenberg got the rebound but missed the front end of the one-and-one, setting the stage for the buzzer-beating tipin.

Stewart led Muhlenberg with 19 points and nine rebounds. O’Brien added 18 points.

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The Mules, who will return to Collegeville for the Centennial Conference Championships in three weeks and the ECAC Championships in four, competed in the Frank Colden Invitational and had a phenomenal meet that featured

Sophomore Jenna Lombardi ran on both relay teams (the 4x200 and 4x400) that qualified for ECACs. The 4x4 broke the three-year-old school record by more than three seconds.

one NCAA qualifier, six ECAC qualifiers and four school records.

Junior Lex Mercado became the first Muhlenberg athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships in 2006, hitting the provisional mark while winning the 800 meters. Competing in the 800 for the first time this season, Mercado crossed the finish line in 1:54.87.

Mercado also contributed to the other first-place finish for the men, who came in second to West Chester. With only the 200 in between to rest up, Mercado came back to help the 4x400-meter relay team win.

For the women, seniors Danielle Seiler and Karen Mount each won an event with a school-record, ECAC-qualifying time and ran a leg on the school-record-setting 4x400 relay. Seiler lowered her own school record in the 400 meters, winning by almost two-and-a-half seconds, and Mount knocked three seconds off her mark for the mile, taking first by more than six seconds.

Junior Tim Seeley broke the school record in the 3,000 meters, improving his personal best by 11 seconds.

The outstanding performances even extended to the coaching staff, where throws coach Chris White qualified for the national championships with a shot put of 60-7¾.

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