Thirteen years is a long time between net-cuttings.
Members of the Franklin College men’s basketball team weren’t complaining about such a drought Wednesday night because they were too busy celebrating.
The Grizzlies applied an exclamation point to their season thus far by hammering host Transylvania, 73-54, in the championship game of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament at the Clive M. Beck Center in Lexington, Kentucky.
Franklin College finishes its season with a 9-6 record under first-year head coach Brian Lebowitz. The Grizzlies last won the HCAC tourney in 2008, with a prior championship in 2002.
Unlike years past, however, the NCAA Division III tournament was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
To Lebowitz, that just meant a happy ending.
“How many teams get to end their season with a win and cut down the nets?” he said. “The whole team, especially the seniors, have worked through a lot of adversity this season, and I couldn’t be prouder of them. Just a great effort all around.”
Balance was the name of the Grizzlies’ game against Transylvania as all-tournament performers Ismail Jones and Matt Krause tallied 18 and 13 points, respectively. Krause, a junior forward, finished with a double-double after storming the glass for a game-high 15 rebounds.
Freshman Ty Wright added 13 points for Franklin College. Senior Payton Mills had eight points, eight boards and five assists, while senior guard Sam Gutierrez finished with six rebounds and three assists.
The Grizzlies were to play a regular-season home-and-home against Transylvania on Feb. 5 and 7, but both games were canceled. Therefore, Wednesday was the first time the teams met this season.
Seven Grizzlies cracked the scoring column in the opening half alone, one dominated by the visitors, 35-24.
Franklin College trailed most of the game’s first five minutes, but a hoop down low from senior Danny Goggans at 14:34 put the Grizzlies ahead, 12-11. They spent the remainder of the half widening the advantage to as many as 14 points, 35-21, after Jones scored off a steal at the 1:32 mark.
The Pioneers called timeout and were benefitted by Gavin Root’s long 3-pointer from the top of the key for the final points of the half. Franklin College was 15 of 31 from the floor (48.4%) the first 20 minutes, while Transylvania was a blustery 9 of 36 (25%).
Early in the second half, the Grizzlies opened up a 39-24 lead before the Pioneers scored eight consecutive points. Franklin College used a Krause triple and a Goggans bucket down low to push it to 12. The Grizzlies continued to play well at both ends of the floor, with Wright’s triple from the left baseline making it 52-36 with 9:56 showing.
Transylvania got as close as seven, 54-47, but Krause drilled a 3 from the right wing and was fouled on what might have been the biggest play of the game with 5:13 left.
The junior hit the free throw, and the Pioneers never recovered.
“It wasn’t easy. We drew three really tough road games in this tournament, but what this team proved is that our results were about us,” Lebowitz said. “And now we’re standing here with a really big trophy.”
