FOXBORO, Mass. – Franklin head coach Dean O’Connor called this year’s Panther squad a defensive team. So when Foxboro was able to put up 15 points in the first quarter, something wasn’t working.
Franklin fixed their problems, limiting the Warriors to just 16 second half points on their way to a 57-40 win.
“Coach really preached talking on defense,” Franklin senior Sam Bohmiller said. “When we talk on D, we play much better as a team. It’s a big focus in practice and that translated over to the second half.
The Panthers improved defensively in each quarter, allowing 15, 9, 8, and 8, in each of the quarters.
“We’re a defensive team pretty much this year,” O’Connor said “Our offense comes from out defense. In the third quarter, we talked about keeping them under 10 and we did.”
Each team was up a single possession after each of the first two quarters with Foxboro up 15-13 after one and Franklin up 27-24 at half.
Junior Chris Rodgers – who led Franklin with 17 points – had scored his first four field goals in the quarter that helped Franklin jump up 38-30. With the defensive focus shifted to Rodgers, Bohmiller stepped up and helped the Panthers pull away.
Bohmiller nailed a straightaway three on a dish from Rodgers and on Franklin’s next offensive trip, Bohmiller drove to the basket, scoring and drawing the foul. He converted the free throw and the next points in the game saw Bohmiller drain another three, this one from the corner.
Dagger.
“I think all year, at the beginning of the game, everyone’s focusing on Sam,” Rodgers said. “That’s when I can get my points. When they start focusing on me and I can get Sam involved, it’s hard to stop us.”
O’Connor said that for the last five or so games that Rodgers has picked up more of the scoring load and it has opened Bohmiller and other teammates. It’s no surprise that Franklin has one seven of their last eight games.
“It’s great,” Bohmiller said. “A lot of teams are focusing on me at the start. Once he gets going, you can’t ignore him. They’ll start focusing on him and that opens things up for me and [Brendan Kuzio], [Marcus] Giese, and Craig [Anderson] for drop offs and dump downs.”
Franklin’s Pat O’Reilly beat the buzzer to end the third, as the Panthers closed out the quarter on a 9-0 run, and outscored Foxboro 22-8 in the frame.
The fourth quarter saw little offense, with each team only scoring eight a piece to finish the game at 57-40.
Foxboro was led in scoring by Justin Zupanick who netted 10. Josh Patkin added 8.
BOX SCORE
Franklin (8-4) 13 – 14 – 22 – 8 --- 57
Foxboro (8-5) 15 – 9 – 8 – 8 --- 40
LEADING SCORERS
Franklin: Chris Rodgers (17), Sam Bohmiller (13)
Foxboro: Justin Zupanick (10), Josh Patkin (8)