<p><strong>F</strong>ranklin’s girls basketball team celebrated the beginning of state tournament play by turning in one of its best all-around performances of the season on Tuesday night.</p><p>Unfortunately for the Grizzly Cubs, the effort wasn’t quite enough to earn them another game.</p><p>Franklin Central got its usual all-everything performance from Rachel Loobie and just enough help down the stretch from teammate Olivia Faust to pull out a 72-67 overtime victory over the Grizzly Cubs in the opening game of the Class 4A Center Grove Sectional.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>The host Trojans faced nowhere near as much resistance in the nightcap, plowing their way past Shelbyville, 55-18. Center Grove (19-5) will play Whiteland in Friday’s second semifinal.</p><p>Franklin Central (13-11) meets Greenwood in the first.</p><p>“You can’t even contain her,” Franklin senior Abby DeArmitt said of Loobie, who finished with game highs of 29 points and 14 rebounds. “She’s good. I’ve played against her since third grade. She’s just a force; there’s not much you can do about that.”</p><p>Faust, though, played just as big a role in helping the Flashes overcome a fourth-quarter deficit and outlast the Grizzly Cubs (9-13). The sophomore scored all 19 of her points in the second half and overtime and also grabbed eight rebounds to aid her team’s dominating effort on the glass.</p><p>Franklin opened the fourth quarter with seven straight points to take a 48-43 lead, but forwards DeArmitt and Lauren Sandrock picked up their respective fourth fouls less than a minute apart, and the Flashes took advantage. Three-point plays from Loobie and Faust put them ahead 56-54 with 3:57 left.</p><p>“I thought where we kind of got in trouble was when we had Abby and Lauren both with four fouls,” Franklin coach Josh Sabol said. “That hurts our rebounding, because those are our two leading rebounders and it’s not even close. Our girls are trying their best and they’re trying to hold on, but I felt like that swung the momentum their way.”</p><p>The only lead the Grizzly Cubs had after that point came when Kuryn Brunson scored the first point of overtime on a free throw to make it 61-60, but a Faust basket and a 3-pointer from Alexus Mobley put Franklin Central in front for good. Franklin twice got to within two, the last time when two DeArmitt free throws cut it to 67-65 with 44 seconds left in the extra frame, but Faust knocked down five foul shots in the final 1:01 to clinch it.</p><p>The two sides stayed within a possession of each other for most of the first half before a Megan Thompson 3-pointer helped give Franklin a 25-21 edge going into the break. Brunson knocked down another 3 and Kiki Crabtree banked one in to stretch the Grizzly Cubs’ advantage to 32-25 early in the third period. The Flashes still trailed by seven with two and a half minutes to go in the quarter before scoring nine unanswered in a span of 63 seconds to pull back in front, 41-39, before surrendering the lead again at the start of the final period.</p><p>Kyra Baker paced Franklin with 16 points and five, while DeArmitt added 15 points and seven rebounds. Crabtree and Sandrock scored 12 and 11, respectively.</p><p>Despite the bitter defeat, Sabol had nothing but effusive praise for his team, especially his two departing seniors.</p><p>“I want to really give Abby DeArmitt and Kiki Crabtree all the credit in the world,” he said. “They were amazing seniors, they were amazing team captains, and they set a culture here that is about being a student-athlete. They perform in the classroom, they’re great people off the court, and the girls love playing with them. This has been the best year that we’ve had, and it’s because of those two. We’re going to miss them a great deal.”</p><p>Center Grove’s four seniors, meanwhile, kept their season rolling along with a dominating performance against the Golden Bears (4-20). The Trojans scored the first eight points of the game and held leads of 19-2 and 37-5 before emptying the bench and coasting to the finish line.</p><p>Claire Rake nearly matched Shelbyville’s offensive output by herself, scoring 15 points on five 3-pointers. Mary Wilson added 10 points for the Trojans, followed by Alainna Frankel and Ashley Eck with seven each and Aili Lothamer with six.</p>
