FRANKLIN – Franklin saved its greatest for final
The Panthers (8-1) erased a 13-point halftime deficit to knock off beforehand unbeaten Sharon 66-61 in a cross-division Hockomock League battle Monday night time.
The backcourt of Henry DiGiorgio and Caden Sullivan got here alive within the second half to mix for 40 of their 45 factors within the last two quarters alone to maintain the Panthers undefeated in league play.
“Both Hank, Caden, and (Andrew) O’Neill, who is dogging their best player all night on defense, and our entire backcourt did a really nice job,” stated Panthers head coach C.J. Neely. “Sharon is one of the best teams around so I’m excited.”
Sharon held a slight four-point lead, 18-14, after the primary quarter and exploded for a 13-2 run halfway via the second quarter. The offensive assault was capped by back-to-back three pointers from Nate Katznelson, who completed with a team-high 23 factors and 10 rebounds, and Jacob McLoughlin (10 factors, six rebounds, 4 assists) to place the Eagles out entrance 29-17 with slightly below 5 minutes left within the first half.
“I thought we were bailing them out defensively as we took too many quick shots and we weren’t making them work at all on defense,” stated Neely. “(Sharon) did a great job moving the ball and finding the open man early on our guys had to fight through that stuff and that’s what we talked about at halftime”.
But after taking pictures 6-of-11 from behind the arc to open the sport, the Eagles (5-1, 4-1) went ice-cold from three-point land as they fell in love with the lengthy ball, and it got here again to hang-out them in the long run.
“They were falling in the first half, we hit a bunch on Friday, and they didn’t miss by much,” stated Sharon head coach Andrew Ferguson. “That’s our offense but I think (Franklin) did a really good job late when we tried to get it inside and taking it away from Nate.”
Franklin added their very own run because the Panthers opened the third quarter on a 10-2 run led by the efforts of DiGiorgio who got here alive with 10 of his game-high 25 to get Franklin inside six, 48-42 after three quarters of play.
“Coming into a place like this, we haven’t won in Franklin in 20-something years so to put in a battle like this – I can’t fault our guys. I’m proud of the effort,” stated Ferguson.
The key down the stretch was Sullivan (20 factors) who scored on a streaking lay-up, stole the inbound, was fouled on the shot and transformed the primary of two free throws to chop the deficit to at least one.
Off the miss on the second finish of the 2 free throws, Sullivan was capable of crash the glass and safe his personal rebound with a put-back for the Panthers result in ship the Franklin trustworthy right into a frenzy.
Katznelson hit the one three-pointer of the second half for Sharon on a desperation shot to chop the deficit to 3 inside two minutes to play however Sean O’Leary who was battling a fever the previous few days gave Franklin the minutes they wanted from their captain.
O’Leary (9 factors) rallied in the long run for an enormous bucket within the paint with 1:17 left to provide Franklin the lead for good, 60-58. Some clutch free throws from O’Neill and glass work from Justice Samuels, who got here off the bench with 5 rebounds within the last 4 minutes of play, sealed issues for Coach Neely in a typical bodily Hockomock tilt.
“Nate is a big problem, a big strong presence inside and I think Justice did a good job pushing him outside because he is a tough matchup,” stated Neely. “We said it in our last timeout that this game was coming down to getting those rebounds and hitting free throws – and the free throws got a little interesting – but we closed it out.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com