Cubs take loss

The Franklin girls basketball team has adopted a more up-tempo style under first-year head coach Josh Sabol, and the Grizzly Cubs hadn’t been forced to slow things down much while winning their first two games.

On Wednesday night, they hit their first roadblock.

Franklin Central was able to force Franklin into more of a grind-it-out halfcourt game, and it worked out well for the visiting Flashes, who pulled away in the second half for a 60-42 victory.

“Everything came to a screeching halt, and we were playing their style instead of our style,” Sabol said.

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The game was deadlocked 24-24 at halftime, but the visiting Flashes (1-1) took control late in the third quarter, scoring 10 unanswered points over the final 1:40 of the period to take a 43-28 edge into the final period. The Grizzly Cubs were still within five prior to that run despite going more than eight and a half minutes without a field goal.

Franklin (2-1) got no closer than 12 in the fourth quarter.

Buoyed by 3-pointers from Cami Cochrane and Makenna Bertsch, the Grizzly Cubs built an 8-0 cushion during the first four minutes of the game before Franklin Central responded with an 11-2 surge to take its first lead early in the second quarter.

“That’s our style,” Sabol said of the opening burst. “We want to get up and down, we want to run and gun, we want to shoot 3s in transition, we want to play a lot of kids.”

Indeed, the Grizzly Cubs used 11 different players in the first quarter, substituting in waves of five throughout the first half before settling into a more conventional pattern after the break.

Franklin went the first 5:48 of the second period without a field goal but stayed close thanks to an abundance of free throws. The Grizzly Cubs made 11 of 17 shots from the line in the opening half and 20 of 31 for the game.

Rachel Loobie scored 14 of her game-high 16 points after halftime for the Flashes, who also got 15 points from Keyla Hines.

Franklin was led by Bertsch’s eight points.

Despite the defeat, the Grizzly Cubs remain optimistic about the potential for their new identity.

“This was the first team that actually got us to slow down,” Bertsch said. “Once we get back and understand more of our press and how to play defense, I think it’s going to pretty tough.”