When Franklin needed someone to come up with a clutch play on the football field this fall, Drew Byerly was the player it turned to most often.
Basketball season doesn’t look like it’ll be much different.
Byerly scored a career-high 33 points and made all 12 of his second-half free throws to help the host Grizzly Cubs outlast Indian Creek, 76-68, on Wednesday in the season opener for both teams.
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Damon Dickey also posted a career best, totaling 27 points for Franklin. He and Byerly, far and away the team’s most experienced returning players, were able to steer their young teammates through some choppy waters when they needed to.
“It’s hard to create a rhythm with a bunch of guys that haven’t played yet,” Franklin coach Brad Dickey said, “but we got some experience and we got people on the floor that I think are going to be good for us going forward.
“We’ll get more consistent play out of more players very soon, I’m sure.”
Damon Dickey converted a four-point play midway through the first quarter to give the Grizzly Cubs a 10-4 lead. After the Braves got within a pair on consecutive Colby Marker baskets, Dickey knocked down two more from downtown to stretch the Franklin lead back to 18-10.
Indian Creek crept back to as close as four when it opened the second quarter with a Javan Crouch 3 and a Christian Wiseman putback to get it to 23-19. But Dickey made yet another 3 and Byerly scored eight of his 15 first-half points as part of an 11-2 run that made it 37-22 with 2:33 to go in the half.
The Braves scored eight in a row at one point to get as close as seven before Byerly banked home a shot just before the horn to send Franklin into the break with a 41-31 advantage.
It didn’t last long. A personal 8-0 run by Marker, including a four-point play, got the visitors within a point at 46-45, and he drove the bucket shortly thereafter to give Indian Creek its first lead of the night, 49-48, with 2:45 remaining in the third.
The teams traded baskets for the next two minutes before Christian McClure scored to get Franklin back on top for good at 55-54.
Indian Creek stayed close the rest of the way, getting as close as 61-60 on a Mason Britt layup with 4:45 to go — but each time the Braves made it a one-score affair, the Grizzly Cubs had an answer. Many of those answers came from the foul line, where Franklin was 13 of 14 in the fourth quarter and 35 of 42 overall.
Marker finished with 25 in a losing effort for the Braves.
“I knew he was going to step up,” Indian Creek coach Drew Glentzer said. “He’s been working on his defense and rebounding and things like that to improve, and offensively, he’s gifted. He’s a kid that can throw it in.”
The Braves host Edinburgh on Saturday, while Franklin is off until a Dec. 6 trip to Decatur Central.
