LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Washington and Lee men's basketball team had two stretches of roughly 10 minutes without a field goal in falling at Lynchburg College by a score of 69-62 on Saturday.

Sophomore guard Stephen Himmelberg (Chapel Hill, N.C. / Chapel Hill) drilled a three-pointer at the 9:08 mark of the first half to pull the Generals (5-10, 2-4) within one point (22-21).  It was W&L's last field goal until first-year forward Clayton Murtha (Dallas, Texas / Highland Park) hit a jumper at the 18:29 mark of the second half to make it a 39-31 game in favor of the Hornets.

Murtha followed the Himmelberg triple with a pair of free throws that gave the Generals a 22-21 lead with 8:29 left in the first half.  Murtha hit two more free throws at the 7:40 mark, but it was W&L's only points in an 11-2 run for the Hornets that gave them a 32-24 lead with 4:36 remaining before the intermission.  Murtha drilled four more free throws and junior forward Andrew Franz (Charlotte, N.C. / Ravenscroft) split a pair of charity tosses in the final 3:10 of the half as the Generals trailed 34-29 at the break.

Following Murtha's jumper just 1:31 into the second half, W&L went on another field goal drought, going 9:51 without a basket until Murtha scored a jumper at the 8:38 mark to pull W&L within 45-41.  As with the first half, the Generals found their way to the free throw line, scoring eight points from the charity stripe during the stretch.

Lynchburg (10-5, 3-3) mounted a run following Murtha's basket, going on a 7-0 spurt featuring five points from guard Zack Burnett for a 52-41 lead with 5:31 remaining.  Murtha scored seven points around a single jumper from Burnett to make it a 54-48 game with 4:00 left, but W&L could get no closer than four points the rest of the way in falling to the Hornets. 

Murtha finished with a career-best 23 points after going 13-of-14 from the foul line.  Himmelberg added 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor.

Lynchburg was paced by Burnett's 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field.  Forward Alex Graves chipped in 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Washington and Lee returns to action on Wednesday when it hosts Eastern Mennonite for a 7:00 pm contest.

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