Franklin’s Micah Davis tries to drive past Greenwood’s John Ollanketo during Friday’s game.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
If given a preference, Franklin’s boys basketball team would rather go open court than halfcourt.
Be that as it may, the Grizzly Cubs are fast proving adept at both.
What some call a hoops version of a rock fight broke out Friday night at Greenwood with Franklin defeating the host Woodmen, 47-33, in the second game of a girls/boys doubleheader.
The opener wasn’t nearly as suspenseful, as the Franklin girls, ranked ninth in Class 4A, won, 73-23.
Senior guard Micah Davis provided the Grizzly Cub boys (4-1, 1-0 Mid-State) with a game-high 23 points with classmate Wyatt Nickleson tacking on 10. Defensively, Franklin limited Greenwood (0-4, 0-1) to just 29 field goal attempts while forcing the hosts into 15 turnovers.
“Overly happy,” said Grizzly Cubs coach Adrian Moss when asked about his squad’s four quarters of lockdown. “This group is putting an emphasis on the defensive end. We feel like we can score points, but can we survive when our shots aren’t going in?
“We want to make shots, but you can’t always control that. When they aren’t going in, we have to be able to be able to play that grind-it-out game. It’s not necessarily a fun game. We like to play fast offensively, but we’ve played some teams that like to play slow.”
Greenwood continued to hang around, trailing 28-24 after guard John Ollanketo splashed a triple from the baseline with 4:11 remaining in the third period. The left-handed Davis proceeded to score Franklin’s next 12 points to help push his team to a far more comfortable 40-28 advantage after his final trey of the game eight seconds into the final stanza.
Ollanketo delivered four 3-pointers to lead the Woodmen with 12 points.
Franklin led by as many as 10 points late in the second period. However, triples from sophomore Parker Doolin from the left baseline and senior Jude Thompson’s from the top of the key pulled the Woodmen to within 22-18 at the half.
The Grizzly Cubs seemed in control after Davis buried a contested 3 from the right corner and followed it by throwing down a left-handed slam dunk in transition at 4:19 of the second, making it 22-12.
Greenwood’s boys host Columbus North this afternoon at approximately 1:30, while Franklin is at Columbus East this evening.
In the night’s first game, senior forward Erica Buening scored 14 of her career-high 20 points in the opening quarter as Franklin dominated throughout.
The Grizzly Cubs bolted to a 17-0 cushion in the opening four minutes, settled in with a 28-4 advantage after one and never looked back. Senior wing Brooklyn York added 14 points for Franklin (10-2, 3-0), while junior Aubrey Runyon came off the bench to add 10.
“Erica can hurt you so many different ways,” Cubs coach Mike Armstrong said. “She can hurt you around the basket. She can hurt you behind the 3-point arc. I was really happy with the way we got out in transition on offense early in the game.”
Greenwood (3-7, 0-2) was led by junior interior player Emma Gardner with eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Sophomore guard Paige Glynn added seven points for the Woodmen.
The home squad turned the ball over 26 times, compared to only four for Franklin.
Both teams return to action next Tuesday, with Franklin playing at Franklin Central and Greenwood hosting Mid-State Conference foe Mooresville.
