FORTVILLE
Kuryn Brunson’s on switch produced quite a bright light for the Franklin girls basketball team in its seasonopener at Mt. Vernon on Thursday.
The junior scored 17 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Grizzly Cubs erased a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 59-52 win over the Class 4A No. 11 Marauders, who return the majority of their contributors from last year’s 22-2 team.
“Our defense and rebounding kept us in it, but then Kuryn just flipped the switch and took over,” Franklin coach Josh Sabol said.
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Brunson forced overtime by hitting two free throws with 2.9 seconds to go to tie the game 49-49. It wrapped up a 10-point quarter for her.
She opened the overtime scoring and had seven points in the extra session.
Senior guard Kyra Baker followed Brunson’s bucket with a 3-pointer as the Grizzly Cubs quickly jumped out to a five-point lead, 54-49, in the first minute of overtime.
Mt. Vernon got within three twice, but Brunson wrapped up the overtime with the final four points of the game.
“She’s a very good athlete and we let her get going downhill and penetrate against us,” Mt. Vernon coach Julie Shelton said. “We did a good job of containing her in the third quarter. We just let her get space (in the fourth quarter and overtime).”
Mt. Vernon shut everyone down in the third quarter.
The Marauders held Franklin without a third-quarter field goal and outscored the Grizzly Cubs 11-4 in the period. Franklin had a two-point lead at half, but committed three early turnovers after the break. The Marauders took advantage, scoring the first seven points of the half.
They led the entire half until Brunson tied the game at the free-throw line in the final seconds.
“We did have some really bad turnovers, but I really thought our team defense and our rebounding kept us in it, then Kuryn Brunson took over,” Sabol said.
Mt. Vernon had a 46-34 lead with 6:23 to go, finishing a 9-0 run with a 3 from Riley Hasseld.
Franklin answered with a 9-0 spurt of its own. It started with back-to-back 3-pointers from freshman Lauren Klem and Brunson. The Klem trey came at 6:08 of the fourth period and was Franklin’s first field goal of the second half.
To finish the run, Brunson scored on an offensive rebound. She was fouled and added a free throw to cut the lead to 46-43 with 4:44 remaining.
“All the credit to (our players),” Sabol added. “(Mt. Vernon is) an amazing team. Coach Shelton does a great job. They’ve got great players. They’re playing in the Hall of Fame Classic this year and they won 21 straight games last year and have almost everybody back from that team.
“For us to come on the road and win in overtime is a good start to the season for our program.”
Baker followed Brunson with 11 points. The majority of the remaining points were scored by freshmen. Klem finished with nine points. Scarlett Kimbrell had six and Erica Buening had five off the bench.
The game went back and forth the entire first half. There were five ties and nine lead changes. A 5-0 Mt. Vernon lead one minute into the game was the largest lead of the half. Franklin had three three-point leads. The biggest run of the half was a 7-0 blast from the Marauders.
Down 19-16, Shelton hit back-to-back buckets. A quick Grizzly Cub turnover ended in an easy lay-in for Hasseld to give the hosts a 22-19 advantage with 5:25 left until the break.
The second quarter ended much like the first. Klem hit a 3 with 23 seconds to go to give the Grizzly Cubs a 30-28 lead.
Freshman Buening hit a 3-pointer late in the first period to give Franklin a 16-13 advantage. Shelton had six of her game-high points in the quarter and went over 1,000 for her career.
Franklin (1-0) welcomes Columbus North on Saturday.
