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.
Franklin Central paid dearly on Tuesday night.
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.
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.
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"We kind of pride ourselves on offensive rebounding; that’s a really, really big stat for us because our philosophy is possessions equal wins," Franklin coach Josh Sabol said. "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."
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.
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.
"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," said Brunson, who led the Grizzly Cubs with 24 points. "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."
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.
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.
