Franklin girls overwhelm Franklin Central

<p>Stopping a great shooting team is hard enough when you’re not giving them second and third shots. Give a team like the Franklin girls enough looks, and they’re going to make you pay sooner or later.</p><p>Franklin Central paid dearly on Tuesday night.</p><p>The Class 4A No. 8 Grizzly Cubs got 10 of their 14 3-point makes in the first half, many of those coming off of high-effort plays from seniors Lauren Sandrock and Megan Thompson, and pulled away early in a 72-43 victory.</p><p>Sandrock grabbed 15 boards overall and added eight points and three steals for the Grizzly Cubs (8-0), who had lost to the Flashes in overtime during sectional play last season. Thompson had four steals and four assists to go with her 12 points.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>&quot;We kind of pride ourselves on offensive rebounding; that’s a really, really big stat for us because our philosophy is possessions equal wins,&quot; Franklin coach Josh Sabol said. &quot;I thought Lauren Sandrock and Meg Thompson really established the tone of the game with extra rebounds, hustle plays, deflections, 50-50 balls, they were getting all of them.&quot;</p><p>The Flashes (2-2), who had not played a game since winning at Whiteland on Nov. 12, traded buckets with the Grizzly Cubs for a couple of possessions before a four-point play by Kuryn Brunson started a 10-0 burst that put Franklin in front for good, 14-4, with 2:51 left in the opening quarter.</p><p>Franklin Central was still within 10 after a Rayah Kincer basket early in the second quarter, but consecutive 3-pointers from Brunson, Lauren Klem and Scarlett Kimbrell stretched the Grizzly Cub lead to 32-13 with 4:34 left in the half. A steal by Sandrock led to a Thompson 3 in the closing seconds that sent Franklin into the break with a 41-19 advantage.</p><p>&quot;Lauren and Megan are our seniors. They work the hardest at practice, they work the hardest in the game, and it comes up big for us,&quot; said Brunson, who led the Grizzly Cubs with 24 points. &quot;You don’t always see it in the stats, but they definitely do the dirty work to get us the points so we can win big like that.&quot;</p><p>The visitors whittled the margin down to 15 late in the third, but 3s by Thompson and Brunson got the Grizzly Cubs’ edge back to 53-32 by the end of the period. Franklin scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to kill any lingering suspense.</p><p>Kincer had 29 in defeat for the Flashes. Klem matched Thompson with a dozen points for Franklin, which got nine different players in the scoring column. Both teams were missing a piece from their usual starting lineup; the Grizzly Cubs were without senior guard Kyra Baker, who is expected back for Friday’s game against Greenwood.</p>