FRANKLIN, Mass. - Taunton head coach Charlie Dacey admitted after the Tiger's double-digit victory over Franklin in December that having to defend Franklin's Chris Rodgers "scared the hell" out of him.
"Now you see why," Dacey said Tuesday after Rodgers exploded for a career-high 36 points to lead the Panthers to a 72-63 win over Taunton.
Franklin led by as much as 16 in the second half (47-31) and as little as two (54-52) but were able to hold on to their advantage and pull away late.
"We played really well in stretches and then we panicked there for a couple of minutes, partly due to Taunton's increased intensity and it looked like it was going to slip away but we gathered ourselves and made some plays and got to the free throw line and finished it off," said Franklin head coach Dean O'Connor.
After a Marcus Giese bucket put Franklin up 47-31 early in the third quarter, Taunton turned it on, finishing the third quarter on a 14-7 run to make it a nine point game after three quarters. The Tigers then started the final frame on a 7-0 run to make it 54-52 but Rodgers scored 11 of the game's next 15 points to pull Franklin ahead for good.
"It was by far his best game," O'Connor said of Rodgers. "He was active early on and he was able to get by the first defender and made some nice passes too."
Rodgers was able to get out and running from strong defense from his teammates - and himself - and used that to spark his offense.
"I got a lot of it off the defense which helps a lot and I was able to get by my man a couple of times," said Rodgers. "I had some dump offs to Giese so they had to respect that so that helped my scoring too. I definitely got a lot of help from my teammates on the screens. I was feeling pretty good with my dribble so that helped."
The game started off with a fast pace with neither team getting into a half court set, instead trading the first six baskets with six different players scoring. Neither team lead by more than three in the opening quarter and after seven points from Rodgers, the Panthers led 20-17 after one.
The second quarter belonged to Franklin, who opened the quarter on a 14-5 run and outscored the Tigers 21-12 in the quarter to head into halftime up 41-29.
"We were supposed to be playing better on the ball defense," Dacey said. "Our own the ball defense took the night off. Franklin plays so smart and Rodgers, he moves the ball either in the lane dumping or another way."
Stretching back to when the deficit was 16, Taunton outscored Franklin 21-7 to make it a one possession game, something that has positives and negatives for Dacey.
"That's the only good news," Dacey said of his team fighting back. "But shame on us for getting down 16. They are what they are and we knew they were going to be improved and we scored some points but I don't think it was in the context of an organized offensive effort. Defensively, Rodgers just shredded us."
Giese finished with 17 points for Franklin, 12 of which came in the middle quarters and Pat O'Reilly added eight points and nine rebounds.
"Marcus and Pat have really increased their scoring in the last couple of games and now we're pretty balanced with Chris," O'Connor said. [Quenten Harrell] has his big games and Timmy [Prunier] can score a little bit so we're getting a nice balance now."
Cory Green scored a team-high 15 points for Taunton, 10 of which came after halftime. Shaq Davis added 14 points for the Tigers and Truly Kenku had 10 points and nine rebounds.
Franklin (9-5) will look to make it two in a row when they travel north on I-495 to take on Milford on Friday. Taunton (11-3) will look to bounce back when they face off in the battle of the Tiger against Oliver Ames on Friday.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.