Franklin boys basketball rallies past East Central for sectional title

ST. LEON

The long shadow of Micah Davis was, for much of Saturday night, cast from a seated position.

Franklin’s senior guard picked up his fourth personal foul 59 seconds into the third quarter on a charging call with his team trailing a poised East Central squad by six points.

Simply put, the Grizzly Cubs appeared to be staring at an earlier-than-expected postseason exit.

Thing is, seniors Wyatt Nickleson, Grant Hunter, Ryder Street, Jayden Razor and Elijah Zahm never received the memo. Nor, for that matter, did Kolt Nelson, Franklin’s rapidly-improving 6-foot-7 post presence.

Their backs firmly against the wall, the Grizzly Cubs dialed up the defensive pressure, hit the floor for every loose ball, played unselfish and opportunistic basketball at the offensive end and picked up their 48th sectional championship with a drama-packed 41-34 victory.

With Davis seated, the message Franklin coach Adrian Moss delivered to his players was succinct.

“It’s time to win the game. It’s next man up at that point in time,” Moss said. “I really didn’t think too much about it. I had every faith in my boys. You’ve got to understand that Wyatt and Grant, Kolt and Ryder, and these dudes, they sacrifice a little bit playing with Micah because he’s such a talented player.

“They’re capable of doing that. If they were on another team, they would probably average 15 to 20 points.”

A familiar foe awaits Franklin (18-4) at regional, as it faces Center Grove (20-4) next Saturday night at Southport. The teams last met in November, with the Cubs eking out a 65-64 overtime victory on the road.

East Central, which managed only 12 second-half points and finished with a 12-14 record, was seeking its first sectional title since 2008.

Franklin wasn’t about to let that happen.

“We said we can’t let this be the end of it just because one senior goes out,” said Nickleson, the team’s point guard. “We’ve all got to play harder because our leading scorer and best player is out. We had to pick it up on at the defensive end and keep it going.

“We started trapping the ball. Every pass, we would send two at them because they really couldn’t take care of it.”

East Central had upped its margin to eight points at 26-18 on a layup from junior guard Carson Pieczonka at 6:06 of the third when the Grizzly Cubs began surging back.

Razor hit the second of two free throws, Street had a three-point sequence after a nice pass into the post from Nelson and Hunter buried a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game. Only Franklin wasn’t done. Two more hoops down low from the 6-3 Razor lifted the Cubs to a 29-26 advantage.

“All of us had to step up. Our leading scorer was out, so we had to move the ball and all play as a team,” Razor said. “It definitely started at the defensive end. We’ve been preparing for this. Coach prepared us for some adversity, put us through some tough things in practice, and we were ready for it when it came.”

Davis, who had re-entered the game with 33.1 seconds remaining in the third, was then subbed back in at 3:49 of the final stanza with his teammates having gutted their way to a 33-29 lead. Franklin never relinquished its lead, though the Trojans made it 35-34 on senior center Eli Ertel’s triple from the right wing at 1:55.

The Grizzly Cubs answered with Nelson’s putback of a missed Davis runner off the glass. East Central could have pulled to within one, but senior guard Dylan Maxwell’s left-handed layup attempt was off the mark and rebounded by Nelson. After a timeout, Hunter, standing just past the midcourt stripe, found Davis sprinting downcourt for a layup at the 18.7-second mark.

Hunter led Franklin with 12 points, followed by Nelson’s double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Maxwell led all scorers with 13 points.

Franklin made 16 of 43 field goal attempts (37.2%) to East Central’s 11 of 38 (28.9%). The Trojans, who committed only two first-half turnovers, were guilty of eight in the second half. The Grizzly Cubs finished with nine miscues.