Franklin’s Sam Auger lets a 3-pointer fly during his team’s victory over Greenwood on Friday.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Franklin boys basketball coach Adrian Moss knew that at some point, his shooters were going to start making shots.
On Friday night, Sam Auger and Wyatt Nickleson both got their groove back.
The two Grizzly Cub guards hit a combined nine 3-pointers, many of them coming at momentum-shifting junctures, to help the Grizzly Cubs pull away for a 56-34 victory over Greenwood.
Nickleson finished with 15 points and Auger 12, all of those coming from behind the arc.
“That’s what we see in practice from those guys,” Moss said. “They’ve been doing that since the day we started, and that’s what we expect from them. … You just saw Steph Curry; he went cold. So it happens. (But) you can’t stay cold for too long, and I knew that those guys were going to get hot tonight.
We believe in those guys and expect them to make shots.”
Both teams are now 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-State Conference.
Neither side was able to get into an offensive rhythm during the opening quarter, but that changed quickly in the second.
Down 8-2 at one point in the first, the Woodmen scored seven in a row, briefly pulling ahead 9-8 after a Noah Apgar 3 and a Carter Campbell putback early in the second. The teams traded buckets for the next couple of minutes before Franklin broke a 14-14 deadlock when Nickleson got the shooter’s roll on a 3-pointer at the 4:48 mark. That sparked a run of eight straight Grizzly Cub points that also included a putback slam by Dylan Beverly and a banked-in 3 by Auger.
Auger knocked down another deep ball from the corner just before the halftime buzzer to give Franklin its biggest lead at 25-16.
“Shooters shoot,” Nickleson said of the hot shooting night for he and Auger. “Micah (Davis) and Carson (Hunter), they get the drive in and get us open looks so we can make them.”
For the rest of the night, every time Greenwood fought its way back within striking range, the Grizzly Cubs had an answer. When Gavin Ruppert began the third quarter with a layup, Hunter answered with a steal and three-point play. After the Woodmen got within 28-23 on a Cade Kelly bucket, Franklin stretched the lead back to double digits on a Nickleson 3 and a Davis floater.
Another buzzer-beating trey by Auger at the end of the third set the home team up with a 36-25 cushion going into the final period, and the margin swelled late as Davis and Beverly both added breakaway dunks and Nickleson hit three more 3s.
Moss said that staying out in front was critical against the Woodmen, who have become known for hard-nosed defense and deliberate offense.
“We wanted to not let those guys get the lead,” Moss said, “because when you let a team like that, that’s that disciplined and plays that well together inside of their system, they get a lead and it’s ugly for you because you can’t take those quick shots anymore.”
Davis added 10 points for Franklin, while John Shepard contributed seven points, five rebounds and two steals and Beverly had six points and three blocked shots.
For the Woodmen, Apgar led the way with 13 points, followed by Campbell with seven and Jake Mosemann with six.
“We got out of our norm,” Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn said. “We got into a game that’s just not our game, and when we had to start pressing and try to get some things going, it’s just not our style. … When you start chasing, it explodes on you a little bit.”
Both teams are right back in action tonight. Greenwood hosts Herron, while Franklin travels to North Central.
