Franklin’s Erica Buening shoots the ball during Tuesday’s game against visiting Indian Creek.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
A year is a long time to let a couple of losses to a county rival simmer inside a pressure cooker.
On Tuesday night, Franklin’s girls popped the lid.
A surprising afterthought to state pollsters so far, the Grizzly Cubs put together their most complete performance of the young season, smothering Class 3A No. 2 Indian Creek on the way to a convincing 63-39 triumph in the nightcap of a boys-girls doubleheader.
Franklin — which was also coming off of a frustrating overtime loss to Center Grove in the county championship game on Saturday — had no shortage of motivation against the Braves, who had defeated the Grizzly Cubs twice last season, and it showed, particularly on the defensive end.
“I’m not saying that we should have won the other night against Center Grove, but we were disappointed that we didn’t win,” Franklin coach Mike Armstrong said. “I think we kind of brought that effort from disappointment out with us. I told them in the locker room after the game that that’s the best we’ve played in the year and eight games that I’ve been here.”
In the opener, Micah Davis scored a game-high 26 points and keyed a pivotal third-quarter blitz that powered Franklin’s boys past the Braves, 65-56, in the season opener for both sides.
The Grizzly Cub girls (6-2) came out with a rush of energy, with Erica Buening scoring seven points during a 9-2 spurt to open the game. Lauren Klem and Scarlett Kimbrell then hit consecutive 3-pointers in the final 1:06 of the first quarter to push the lead to 18-6.
Franklin kept the pressure on into the second period, extending its lead to 26-7 before the Braves used a mini-run of seven points to get within a dozen. In response to that pushback, the Grizzly Cubs scored the next nine points, going up 35-14 when Buening opened the third quarter with a bucket.
“We knew we needed to have a better start, a quick start,” Buening said. “Just starting fast with a lot of energy really helps us continue to play well as we go.”
Indian Creek (4-2) had a small window of opportunity open when Buening picked up her fourth foul with 4:54 left in the third, but every time it tried to climb through by cutting the deficit to less than 20 points, Franklin slammed it shut again with another basket. The gap grew as wide as 27 points on a couple of occasions in the fourth quarter.
Buening paced all scorers with 18 points for Franklin, while Brooklyn York scored 13. Klem finished with 11 points, six assists and three steals; Aubrey Runyon chipped in eight points off the bench. For the Braves, Faith Wiseman scored 14 points and Lauren Foster added nine.
“That’s the kind of team that we want to be,” Armstrong said after the win.
“We can definitely be good if we’re all on the same page,” Buening added.
In the early game, Indian Creek was within 9-8 after an Adam Crouch 3-pointer late in the first quarter before the Grizzly Cubs answered with seven straight points, stretching the lead to 16-8 on a Kolt Nelson jumper. The Braves battled back to tie it, 21-21, on a corner 3 from Landon Sichting with 2:08 remaining in the half. Franklin regained the upper hand with consecutive buckets and went up 28-23 on a Micah Davis trey with five seconds to go, but Crouch sank a shot from midcourt as the buzzer sounded to pull the visitors back within two at the break.
That long bomb lit a fire under the Grizzly Cubs, who opened the second half with a 15-3 run to take control. Davis had 11 points and an assist during that burst, closing it with a 3-pointer and a dunk to make it 43-29 midway through the third. Franklin maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the period, taking a 51-39 cushion into the fourth.
“We were not going to be where we’re going to be in January offensively, running your stuff and moving the ball,” Indian Creek coach Drew Glentzer said. “When you have a guy like (Davis) that can create a lot of offense, early in the year I think that’s a big plus.”
Consecutive 3-pointers from Ryder Street and Wyatt Nickleson pushed the spread to 62-45 with 3:13 to go. Indian Creek answered with a too-little-too-late run to make the final score look more respectable.
Nickleson had 12 points on four 3-pointers for Franklin. Nelson and Street scored nine each, with Nelson also grabbing 11 rebounds, and Grant Hunter contributed seven points. Crouch led the Braves with 17 points and was joined in double digits by Sichting (15) and Trent Volz (11).
