For the Daily Journal
Patience is always a necessary intangible for winning basketball.
That was never truer than Saturday night.
Franklin exhibited a lot patience and poise — especially senior Jacob Rockey, who had two free throws and a layup with six seconds left to give the unbeaten Grizzly Cubs an 82-78 overtime win over visiting Hauser in nonconference boys basketball action Saturday night.
Earlier it was a 6-2 sophomore Cory Richards who hit a 3-point shot at the top of the key as the buzzer went off in regulation to tie the score at 69 and send it to overtime.
Franklin coach Brad Dickey said the ball was supposed to be in Richards’ hands at that moment. It’s what the team wanted.
“We have a bunch of selfless kids,” Dickey said. “The seniors called the play and wanted Cory to shoot it. Cory executed, and it was awesome.”
Franklin (4-0) has already won three games by four points or fewer.
“If (Richards) doesn’t hit the shot, we’re talking about winning a game, but we’re not,” said Hauser assistant Griff Roth, who is at the reins of the Jets while head coach Bob Nobbe is out with an illness.
The Jets missed all kinds of shots. Whether it was a 10-foot jumper, easy layup, a botched attempt at a slam dunk or free throws, the Jets didn’t make the most of their chances in the first half.
Hauser (2-3) missed eight free throws, five of them in the first half. Franklin, meanwhile, made 14 of 17 from the line.
Another statistic that may have surprised stat geeks was that the Jets kept the game close despite committing 20 turnovers, twice the amount that the Grizzly Cubs had.
No team had more than a five-point lead the entire game.
“I thought Hauser outplayed us at times,” Dickey said. “They made us work hard, but we got some huge plays from our guys at key moments.”
Both teams worked hard and exhibited patience more so than panic — even during crunch time with the game in the balance.
The game was tied at the half at 32, and the chess match continued well into the second half with each team patiently setting up plays and taking the shot.
Hauser shot the ball well in the second half. But so did Franklin.
The Jets appeared to have the game in its favor with a 65-62 lead with 1:35 to go in regulation.
A short spurt by Franklin cut that lead, but the Jets’ Alex Gross hit two clutch free throws with 17.2 seconds left to give Hauser 69-66 lead.
That set up Richards’ heroics, which set the stage for Franklin’s fourth win in as many tries this season.
Gross led all scorers with 27 points for Hauser. Franklin was led by Rockey with 22 points, while Richards had 21.
