Franklin’s Kyndell Jochim, left, and Indian Creek’s Faith Wiseman battle for the ball during Tuesday’s county tournament game.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Lauren Foster hadn’t forgotten the last time Indian Creek played Franklin in the Johnson County tournament.
After hanging for a quarter in that one, the Braves were completely overwhelmed in an 80-32 loss to the eventual Class 4A state runner-up. Foster made sure that didn’t happen again, scoring 35 points to power her team to a 66-56 road win over the Grizzly Cubs in a first-round matchup on Tuesday.
The Class 3A No. 6 Braves (3-0) will face Greenwood in a Thursday semifinal at Edinburgh.
“We were determined to just go out there and play with all our hearts and beat them,” Foster said. “We lost by (48) last year, so we were just determined. We have a great team this year, and we knew that we could win, so we went out there and we played.”
“It starts with a little more experience now,” Indian Creek coach Brian Ferris added. “We’ve played them, we know how they play, we’re a year older, a year stronger, and we’ve been really working on playing together. … We approached this one not getting too wrapped up on what they do; let’s keep doing what we do and see how it works out.”
Indian Creek managed to stay right with the Grizzly Cubs early despite turning the ball over seven times in the opening quarter alone. The Braves established Faith Wiseman down low, with the Indiana University recruit getting five points and five free-throw attempts in the first period. Foster had seven points in the quarter, including a 3-pointer with half a minute remaining that tied the score at 15-15.
A Savannah Hall 3 to open the second put the visitors in front, and an and-one from Foster keyed an 11-0 surge that gave the Braves a 29-17 advantage. But over the last three minutes of the half, the turnover bug bit Indian Creek again, allowing the Grizzly Cubs to get themselves back into the game. Franklin closed with a 9-0 run to go into the locker room down just one possession at 29-26.
The host squad’s momentum was short-lived. Indian Creek scored the first 10 points of the second half, getting another three-point play from Foster and a 3 from Wiseman while building its largest lead of the night at 13 points. Franklin stopped the bleeding with a pair of layups by Lauren Klem, but Foster answered with two free throws and a layup to restore the double-digit cushion.
Two more free throws from Foster to begin the fourth gave the Braves a 48-34 advantage.
Wiseman picked up her fourth foul with 7:47 remaining and Franklin seemed to get a boost, closing to within 50-43 on a Klem 3-pointer at the six-minute mark. Indian Creek didn’t fold, though, with Olivia Pendleton hitting a big 3 and another jumper as part of a 7-0 spurt that pushed the lead back to 14.
The Grizzly Cubs made another late charge, scoring 10 in a row and getting as close as 58-54 on a Scarlett Kimbrell trey with 2:35 left on the clock. But Abby Fleetwood knocked down a pair from the line and Foster delivered what proved to be the exclamation point, grabbing a loose ball in stride and converting a contested over-the-shoulder layup to make it 62-54 at the 1:47 mark.
Every time Franklin got close, the Braves had an answer. More often than not, it was Foster, who got to the basket almost at will and finished 16 of 16 from the free throw line.
“I just knew that I wanted to win,” she said. “The lane was open, and I had amazing passes from all of my teammates … I definitely could not have gotten into the lane as much if I did not have those people looking for me.”
Wiseman added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Braves, who also got seven points from Fleetwood and six from Pendleton
Klem finished with 13 points and four steals to lead Franklin in defeat, while Kimbrell and Brooklyn York each scored 11. Kyndell Jochim tallied nine points before fouling out and Erica Buening contributed seven.
Having lost to a county team for the first time in three seasons, the Grizzly Cubs (3-2) have a week to regroup before facing the Braves again next Tuesday in Trafalgar.
“That’s our next game now,” Franklin coach Mike Armstrong said. “Now we’ve got some time in practice to work on some things, get some things ironed out and come back next week. We didn’t get this one tonight, but our long-term goals are still in front of us.”
Meanwhile, an already confident Indian Creek team has a statement win to build off of as it looks to put together a magical season.
“This is a big step for the kids, a big step for the program,” Ferris said. “Franklin has a great team, obviously; they’ve got all those kids back from the 4A state runner-up and they’ve been highly touted for a long time. … We knew this one was going to be a dogfight coming in. Now hopefully it gives us the confidence that we know we can continue to play with anybody and just continue to be us.”
