FRANKLIN — Closing out the first half with a 14-3 run, Franklin pulled away from Wilmington Friday for a 61-36 non-league win at the Darrell Hedric Gymnasium.
The Wildcats are 5-1 on the year while the Hurricane drops to 3-2.
“They’re a good team,” WHS head coach Matt Kramer said of the Wildcats. “They have five grown men on the floor, flying around. They don’t have to do a lot of thinking out there. They’re 7-8-9 deep. I give them credit for running the type of program we want to run.”
Franklin hoisted 40 three-pointers among its 60 total field goal attempts. The Wildcats made 11 threes in all, led by Zack Minton who hit 6 of them and finished with a game-high 20 points.
On the defensive side, Franklin took away Wilmington’s top two scorers — Matt Butcher and Cam Coomer. The duo came in to the game averaging a combined 40 points. On Friday, they were 5 for 20 from the floor and combined for 13 points.
“We hung with them for a bit,” Kramer said. “Their goal was to keep our top two guys down and they did that.”
Franklin was more than willing to hang around the three-point line and shoot. In the first half, the Wildcats had 33 total shots with 26 coming outside the arc. They made 8, with Zack Minton leading the way with 4 successful first-half 3-pointers.
Wilmington, on the other hand, was not so successful. WHS was 7 for 27 from the field, and just 3 for 13 beyond the arc. Franklin’s defense forced Wilmington to work very hard for each shot opportunity.
Wilmington trailed 9-2 early then surged to the lead at 11-9. It was 17-16 Franklin after Custis scored five unanswered points in the second. But the Wildcats scored 14 of the next 17 points to grab a 31-19 lead at halftime.
After falling behind 38-19 in the third, the Hurricane rallied. Jones, Custis and Vilvens had three each as WHS cut the difference to 12, 40-28.
But the Wildcats had a late 12-2 run and pushed the lead back to 22 by the end of the period.
Kramer said Gabe Jones “did some really nice things for us” while Custis “battles” and led WHS with 10 rebounds. Butcher grabbed eight errant shots. Jones led WHS with three assists.
SUMMARY
Dec 20, 2019
@Franklin High School
Franklin 61 Wilmington 36
W^11^8^11^6^^36
F^11^20^21^9^^61
(36) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Butcher 3-2-0-8 Coomer 2-1-0-5 Jones 2-2-0-6 Custis 4-1-2-11 Vilvens 1-0-1-3 Baltazar 1-1-0-3 Barker 0-0-0-0 Blessing 0-0-0-0 Griffith 0-0-0-0 Warix 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 13-7-3-36
(61) FRANKLIN (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Johnson 5-0-4-14 Fuller 0-0-0-0 Minton 7-6-0-20 Rich 4-2-1-11 Russell 3-1-1-8 Lattimore 0-0-0-0 Emrick 0-0-0-0 Kinser 1-1-0-3 Bales 2-2-0-6 Bennett 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 22-11-6-61
FIELD GOALS: F 22-60; W 13-47 (Custis 4-11 Butcher 3-13 Coomer 2-7 Jones 2-4 Vilvens 1-6 Baltazar 1-1)
3 PT FIELD GOALS: F 11-40; W 7-28 (Jones 2-4 Butcher 2-8 Coomer 1-4 Custis 1-3 Baltazar 1-1)
FREE THROWS: F 6-10; W 3-6
REBOUNDS: F-42 (Jonson 13 Rich 8 Kinser 5 Fuller 4 Minton 4); W-32 (Custis 10 Butcher 8 Barker 5 Vilvens 4 Jones 2)
ASSISTS: F-15 (Fuller 7 Russell 4); W-10 (Jones 3 Butcher 2 Custis 2 Vilvens 2)
STEALS: F-9 (Johnson 3 Minton 3); W-7 (Coomer 2 Vilvens 2)
BLOCKED SHOTS: F-0; W-1 (Vilvens 1)
TURNOVERS: F-7; W-19
