Franklin seniors Kuryn Brunson, left, and Ashlyn Traylor console one another in the closing seconds of Saturday’s state championship loss to Noblesville.
Sam Findley | For the Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS
With 1:25 remaining in Saturday night’s Class 4A state championship game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Franklin seniors Kuryn Brunson and Ashlyn Traylor stepped off the court for the final time, took the first two available seats on the Grizzly Cub bench and spent the next few minutes in a sorrowful embrace, each one trying to console the other and perhaps themselves at the same time.
This 76-52 loss to Noblesville wasn’t the ending they had signed up for.
Traylor had been hoping for the opportunity on the big stage since coming to Franklin from Martinsville just weeks before the season — but she certainly hadn’t expected to play a mere 4 minutes and 20 seconds of the first half, picking up two fouls in the first 2:11 and a third shortly after re-entering in the middle of the second quarter.
Brunson came in hungry for a championship to top off a career filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows. The Indiana Junior All-Star and Division I prospect fought her way through two losing seasons, a torn ACL and the unexpected death of her stepbrother, Kameron Cox, before leading the Grizzly Cubs to consecutive semistate appearances and then this title match.
She didn’t plan to get harassed into a 1-for-12 shooting performance by a Noblesville defense that often seemed as overwhelming as trying to simultaneously handle open-heart surgery, the CPA exam and a Wordle puzzle where Y is the only vowel.
In those last moments of shared frustration and disappointment, they leaned on each other in a different way than they had while helping the Grizzly Cubs win 28 of their first 29 games.
“She kind of just looked over to me, and she was like, ‘It’s okay,’” Brunson said of Traylor. “We put in the work to get here, and we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but I’m proud of my teammates for battling and getting us here.”
“Me and Kuryn, we’re best friends,” Traylor added. “We were just hugging, saying we had a great season. This wasn’t how we wanted it to end, but we were right there.”
Franklin shouldered the weight of high expectations all season long and largely delivered, marching all the way to the final game before running into a Millers team that not only featured UConn recruit and prohibitive 2023 Miss Basketball favorite Ashlynn Shade but also a supporting cast that seemed to be channeling the 1985 Villanova men’s team. Sophomores Ava Shoemaker and Reagan Wilson shot a combined 10 for 17 and each hit two timely 3-pointers on a night when the Grizzly Cubs happened to shoot 29% overall and make just 6 of 24 from long range.
Having Traylor, the Grizzly Cubs’ leading scorer and also one of their primary engines at the defensive end, stapled to the bench for most of the first half certainly didn’t help.
“It had a big impact on us scoring-wise, defensively,” Brunson said. “We looked for some other players to step up, and I think we did that. Just not enough to get the job done.”
This won’t be the last basketball game for either of them — though both currently uncommitted, Brunson and Traylor will absolutely end up playing college ball somewhere. But the two seniors, one a recent transfer and the other a Franklin lifer, had both hoped to end their prep careers holding a larger trophy and rocking medals with a different color strap.
“I wanted to give back to my community,” Brunson said. “They were there for me when times were tough, and I was able to bounce back, give us winning seasons, and my teammates helped me and we did the best that we could.
“With all the hardships, there’s good times through it, and basketball was my good time.”
Sadly, every good time comes to an end eventually. But Brunson and Traylor gave one another a shoulder to cry on when this one finally did.
