Franklin’s Scarlett Kimbrell and her teammates sport their new “4-peat” championship hats after defeating Whiteland on Saturday.
Gary Brockman | For the Daily Journal
The upset bug was running rampant across Class 4A on Saturday night, with three of the top six teams in the state biting the dust.
Whiteland very nearly added No. 8 Franklin to the list of casualties, but senior Lauren Klem hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:11 remaining and the Grizzly Cubs locked in defensively down the stretch to escape Glenn Ray Gymnasium with a 45-42 triumph and a fourth straight sectional championship.
Franklin (23-3) will face Evansville North in a regional game this coming Saturday (4 p.m.) at Bedford North Lawrence.
Despite having beaten the Warriors handily in their two previous meetings, 68-30 and 51-29, the Grizzly Cubs were all smiles after narrowly avoiding a shocking defeat. The result, they said, mattered far more than the margin.
“Our mentality going into this was survive and advance, because in these games anything can happen,” Klem said. “So I think it’s just really great to come out with another win and another sectional title.”
A Carly VonDielingen basket with 3:45 to go in the game put Whiteland up four, 40-36, but a potential dagger shot to go up six moments later missed the mark. Brooklyn York, who finished with a game-high 16 points for Franklin, hit two free throws with 2:51 left to make it a two-point game, and neither side scored again until Klem — who had missed several 3s from the left wing during the second half — finally got another one to go.
“I was so relieved,” she said of the go-ahead make. “The coaches were stressing in the locker room, ‘We’ve just got to keep shooting.’ … We were missing a bunch of shots in the beginning, but they just stressed being positive about your shooting and having confidence; just keep shooting them up there, and they’ll fall eventually.”
Whiteland had a chance to pull back ahead but committed a turnover — its 23rd of 24 on the night — with 20.8 seconds left, and the Grizzly Cubs were able to pad their lead to five with foul shots before the Warriors’ Gwen Higdon hit a jumper at the buzzer.
Franklin started the game ice cold, going 0 for 9 from 3-point range in the first quarter, and the Warriors (12-13) took advantage. Sophia Dyer and Samantha Roadruck scored the first two baskets of the game, and a Higdon 3 from the left wing gave Whiteland a 9-2 lead with 2:21 to go in the period.
The Grizzly Cubs’ cold spell ended in the opening minute of the second quarter when Erica Buening hit a 3-pointer and Kennedy Urban added another off of a steal to make it a one-point game. A Sukhman Bains 3 and a Sophia Dyer free throw pushed the Warrior lead back to 13-8, but the Grizzly Cubs kept on coming, taking their first lead at 18-16 on the second of back-to-back baskets from York.
Whiteland got the last word of the first half, though, as Bains drained another 3 and then scored on a transition layup to send the home side into the locker room with a 23-20 edge.
Buening opened the second half with a game-tying 3, and York followed with a layup and another trey to give the Grizzly Cubs a 28-23 lead. The visitors’ outside shooting cooled off yet again over the back half of the third quarter, however, and the Warriors were able to stay within range going into the fourth, down by just a pair at 33-31.
Driving baskets by Higdon and Dyer put Whiteland back up by two at the six-minute mark. Klem hit a 3-pointer from the wing to briefly put Franklin back up by one, but Roadruck tied it with a foul shot and Dyer drove in for another layup with 4:24 left to get the Warriors back on top, 38-36.
Klem and Buening each finished with 10 points for the Grizzly Cubs. Whiteland got 13 points from Dyer, 12 from Higdon and 10 from Bains.
As it had in both of its sectional victories, Whiteland leaned on its defense and overall toughness — and it defended well enough on Saturday to win again. Though the final outcome didn’t go the way of the underdog, Warriors coach Kellie Burgeson was beyond proud of the effort from her team, which graduates only two seniors in Higdon and Brookelynn Johnson.
“We punched Franklin and they punched back, and we kept punching,” she said, “and I could not be more proud of this group of girls.”
Franklin coach Mike Armstrong, likewise, was proud of his team for battling through an off shooting night against a strong Whiteland defense, not to mention a spirited partisan crowd. It wasn’t pretty, but on a night when fellow state title contenders Columbia City, Hamilton Southeastern and Jennings County all failed to escape their respective sectionals, Armstrong was happy to get a win by any means.
“Was it Shakespeare who said, ‘All’s well that ends well?’” he asked. “I think that was it right there; all’s well that ends well.”
