After putting in three hard weeks of practice for its season opener, the Franklin College women’s basketball team found out quickly there is still more work to be done — and done immediately.
The host Grizzlies fell behind early and could never match the skills of their nonconference opponent Elmhurst Tuesday night, resulting in a 70-39 Blue Jays victory.
Franklin and Elmhurst matched shot for shot in the early going, but the Blue Jays outscored the Grizzlies 23-7 in the second period to take a commanding 39-19 advantage.
With everything going right for the Blue Jays and everything coming up short for the Grizzlies, Elmhurst used its 3-point shooting accuracy and a massive edge on the boards to take over. Elmhurst outrebounded Franklin 43-21.
The Blue Jays pulled down seven offensive rebounds in the first half and finished with a total of 13, which resulted in second and third-chance points.
Elmhurst also added a fierce man-to-man defense that disrupted Franklin’s set offenses, forcing bad shots as the 30-second shot clock wound down.
The Blue Jays’ swift ball movement resembled that of a team pushing for an NCAA Division III playoff spot in only its first game of the season.
Not knowing exactly what to make of the Grizzlies first game out, third-year coach Dana Haggenjos still remains positive about the road ahead.
“Hopefully, this is a learning experience for us. We really didn’t come out to play,” she said.
“We have a lot of veteran leadership on this team (seven seniors). I just don’t think we had the mentality to be ready to go today. Unfortunately, it showed in all capacities. We pride ourselves in our defense, and our defense wasn’t very good today.
“We just didn’t match up in transition. It’s Basketball 101, the basics, which we kind of failed to do. Hats off to Elmhurst.”
Elmhurst had three players in double figures. Leading the way with a game-high 17 points was junior forward Mikaela Eppard. Hannah Lipman added 12 and Kaelin Summerlin 11.
The Blue Jays connected on 27 of 56 shots from the field overall and 10 of 23 from outside the arc.
On the other side of the fence, Franklin hit only 13 of 44 from the field for 29.5 percent and made just 3 of 10 three-point attempts while going 10 of 16 from the charity stripe.
In all, Franklin used 14 players as Haggenjos continued to search for effective combinations.
Junior starting guard Riley Achenbach had a team-high seven points.
Next up for Franklin (0-1) is a weekend tournament at Hope College in Michigan.
