The schools are an hour drive apart, but Franklin and Jennings County reside next to one another in the season’s final Class 4A poll.
However, on Thursday night, it was the visiting Panthers exerting their will.
Led by the 28 points and 14 rebounds of 6-foot senior post Juliann Woodard, who is signed to play at Michigan State, seventh-ranked Jennings County knocked off the No. 6 Grizzly Cubs, 51-44.
The final sectional tune-up for both squads resulted in Franklin’s 15-game win streak — one that originated back on Nov. 21 — coming to an end.
Woodard’s presence underneath and soft mid-range shooting touch created problems, yes. But not as many as the fact that the Cubs’ shooting touch abandoned them early and often, as Franklin made only 16 of 56 field goal attempts (28.6%), complemented by 2-of-8 misery from the free throw stripe.
“We didn’t shoot it very well tonight, but let’s give (Jennings County) some credit,” Grizzly Cubs coach Mike Armstrong said after watching his team drop to 20-3 on the season. “But we still had our opportunities.
“We still had our chances against what is really a pretty good basketball team. We just kind of hung in there, hung in there, hung in there. But field goal shooting and free throw shooting really got to us tonight.”
Leading at halftime, 24-22, Franklin was done in by 15 third-quarter points from Woodard, who had her squad up seven points through three periods.
A 3-pointer from the right corner by Panthers sophomore guard Mollie Ernstes to open the fourth-quarter scoring made it a 10-point game; Woodard’s old-fashioned three-point sequence after scoring down low with 3:34 remaining made it 47-34.
Franklin guard Emma Sappenfield answered with a trey of her own, followed by two Erica Buening free throws to get the margin back to single digits.
Too little, too late.
Sappenfield delivered 14 of her team-high 17 points over the course of the first two quarters as the Grizzly Cubs clung to their slim lead at halftime. She scored the first four of her team’s points to open the game and its final six of the half on a pair of 3-pointers in the final 44.2 seconds.
Franklin held a 12-7 advantage late in the first quarter, but the Panthers responded with a 9-0 scoring run that extended to the 5:34 mark of the second stanza to take a four-point lead.
Jennings County (21-3) pushed the spread to five at 20-15 until senior guard Lauren Klem’s second triple of the period got the home team within two points.
Buening finished with 11 points for the Grizzly Cubs and Klem eight in what was their final home game. Senior wing Scarlett Kimbrell led Franklin on the glass with eight rebounds.
Franklin, which plays Shelbyville on Tuesday night in the first round of the Whiteland Sectional, isn’t deterred from the goals it set before the start of the regular season.
“What we talked about after the game is that all our goals are still in front of us,” Armstrong said. “We saw some things we have to work on, and some things that we need to do better.
“I kind of hate to end the regular season with a loss after you’ve had this kind of season, but it gives us an idea of what we need to focus on going into next week.”
