Franklin coach Mike Armstrong talks to his team during a timeout on Wednesday night.
Sam Findley | For the Daily Journal
For all of the tremendous success that Franklin girls basketball has enjoyed recently, a familiar Kryptonite has emerged.
The Hoosier Crossroads Conference has had the Grizzly Cubs’ number.
After cruising through its first two games by a combined margin of 55 points, Class 4A No. 8 Franklin faced its first real test of the season on Wednesday night when it hosted No. 5 Hamilton Southeastern. The result was one that Grizzly Cub fans haven’t — but also have — become accustomed to in recent years.
The Royals grabbed an early advantage and never relinquished it, smothering Franklin’s normally dynamic offense in a convincing 51-35 victory.
It was the Grizzly Cubs’ first home loss since Jan. 26 of 2021 and the team’s lowest scoring output since a 49-27 semistate defeat to Brownsburg that same season. Wednesday’s contest was reminiscent of that one and several others against HCC teams.
“I’ve been here two-plus years, and we’ve lost six games,” Franklin coach Mike Armstrong said. “We’ve lost five games to teams in that conference, and they’ve all been the same. Zionsville in the (holiday) tournament two years ago; Brownsburg in the semistate. Westfield, we scored 40 points last year in overtime. We did beat HSE last year, but in most of these games like this, we just have trouble scoring points.”
Uncharacteristic turnovers hampered the Grizzly Cubs (2-1) early on, allowing the Royals to get some easy transition buckets early, in the form of both uncontested layups and open 3-point looks. Freshman Maya Makalusky got off to a hot start, opening the game with a 3 and helping HSE jump out to an early 11-2 lead over the first two minutes and change. Another Makalusky trey put the visitors up by double digits at 14-4 before Franklin started to settle into an offensive rhythm and chip away. A Kyndell Jochim 3 cut the deficit to a much more manageable 16-12 with 1:45 left in the opening quarter.
Offensive rhythm was non-existent during a second period that saw the two teams combine for just nine points. The Royals (2-0) went more than seven minutes without scoring, but the Grizzly Cubs couldn’t buy a bucket at the other end and went into the half facing a 26-19 deficit.
“For the middle part of the game, we were pretty solid defensively,” Armstrong said, “but we just couldn’t make up any ground because we couldn’t finish a play or we missed a good look or something like that.”
Brooklyn York scored the first four points of the third to get Franklin back within three, but Hamilton Southeastern was again able to take advantage of Grizzly Cub giveaways. Kennedy Holman scored five points in an 18-second span, and back-to-back buckets by Teegan Acres and Olivia Brown stretched the margin to 40-28 with 1:01 left in the period.
The quarter ended with a deep buzzer-beating 3 by Lauren Stewart that put HSE up 44-31, and the Grizzly Cubs never got back within single digits over the final eight minutes.
With the exception of a couple of short stretches, Franklin generally defended well enough to win the game. It just couldn’t muster the offense that seems to come so easily against most of the teams it faces.
“We’ve just got to find — and my job as a coach is to help them find ways to execute against these top-tier teams offensively in these types of games,” Armstrong said. “Some of this is still early season, and that’s why you want to play this game. We’re still trying to feel ourselves out, and they’re really strong and quick defensively, so they take you out of things that you’re trying to do. We’ve just got to have a better commitment to know what we’re doing, what we’re running, and run it against quality pressure.”
Jochim collected 10 points before fouling out on a Makalusky and-one with 4:28 remaining. Buening added nine points and York eight. Makalusky led all scorers with 19 points for the Royals.
