ATCHISON, Kan. - Melvin Tillman found the bottom of the net for a game-winning bucket with 1.3 seconds left� to lift Central�Methodist to a 53-51 victory at Benedictine on Saturday inside Ralph Nolan Gymnasium.�Eric Franklin,�the hero of�last Saturday's win,�scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half.

Franklin's 20 points also set a new personal season-high.

"I had been struggling in the game and knew they would play Eric tight," Tillman said.�"They started backing up, and I just hit the shot. We pulled through at the end and kept our composure."

An Elliott Black rejection of Quaran Johnson tuned into a TIllman 13-foot jumper from the corner in transition. The bucket was the first of the game�for the Eagles, tying the score at two,�at the 15:29 mark. A trey by Robert Mason with 12:14 left in the first half gave Central Methodist its first lead of the game, 8-7.

Franklin nailed back-to-back three-pointers, the last coming�with 8:50 on the clock,�to keep the Eagles up 16-14.�He banked in a trey from the wing at the 6:07 mark of the first period to increase his team's lead to�three points, 21-18.

Franklin scored 16 of Central Methodist's first�21 points. Those 16 points came in the first 14 minutes of the game, and Benedictine had 18�during the same stretch.

A Franklin running bank shot with 30 seconds on the clock was the final bucket of the first half, and Central Methodist led 29-26 at intermission. Franklin was 7-of-9 in the first half from the field, including 4-of-5 from distance.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair. Derek Kitch slipped in behind the Raven defense to putback a Franklin miss, giving the Eagles a 44-42 upper hand with 6:24 left in the game.

With the Ravens leading 45-44 with just under four minutes remaining, a Brett Fisher made three-pointer was waived off due to a shotclock violation.�The refs reviewed the play and upheld the call, leading to an Evan Lavery trey on the next possession to give Central Methodist a two-point edge.

Benedictine answered, taking a 51-49 upper hand with two minutes on the clock. Central Methodist's Alex Barner countered with a�drive to the hoop, tying the�contest with 54 seconds left.

On the Ravens next trip down the court, Fisher turned over the ball, throwing�it out of bounds,�with 19.7 seconds�remaining to set up Tillman's heroics.�On an isolation play, Tillman hit the game-winning bucket�from the top of the key.�A halfcourt heave on�Benedictine's inbounds attempt was stolen to preserve Central Methodist's two-point victory.

Kitch�tallied 10 points and five rebounds. Tillman finished with seven. Black and Barner had four apiece. Black also had eight rebounds.

Fisher ended the game with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He was 5-of-7 from three-point range. Johnson had nine points.

Central Methodist will host Culver-Stockton�for Senior Night on Thursday, February 23. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.


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