The regular season is at hand for Panther hoops.
After last year’s strong winter including 20 wins from the boys and a Mountain Seven Conference Tournament title from the girls, both teams have been hard at work preparing for the next campaign. In their last preseason scrimmages versus Hayesville Nov. 25, the Panthers showed why they should be right back in the mix.
Girls
“We had a good summer – we really did,” said girls head coach Scott Hartbarger, now entering his 17th year at the helm. “We went to Winston-Salem and played at a coaches’ pregame-type thing, and we played three pretty good teams and won all three of them. And then we went down to Freedom Nov. 8, won three games down there and played some pretty good teams, so we’re coming along.”
Throughout a busy offseason the Panthers have impressed, testing their skills against foes from WNC and further afield. Despite losing several key players from last year’s team, Hartbarger believes his current squad has plenty of talent.
“We’re young – we have two seniors – but the speed of this team will be our asset,” he said. “It’ll be what we’ll hang our hat on as far as pushing the basketball and trying to put the pressure on the defense to get back. You noticed tonight we got six or eight easy transition points just pushing it out ahead ... we had a little bit of a slow start to the first quarter, then we picked it up after that.”
After an initial eight-minute period in which they were outscored 11-8, the Panthers kicked into gear, “winning” each subsequent “quarter” 13-7, 18-15 and 18-8. Guards Bristol Brooks, Rylee Greene, Layla Maloy, Anna Stiles and others frustrated the Yellow Jackets on both ends of the floor. Having delayed this year’s season opener to give Panther football players time to return, Hartbarger said his girls have been chomping at the bit.
“Well, it’s good and it’s bad because you have that time to prepare, but then the girls get tired of practicing against each other and they’re ready to play somebody else. So, tonight was good for us,” he said.
After scrimmaging Hayesville, the Panthers prepared to tip off their regular season, hosting nonconference games with North Buncombe and Cherokee Dec. 2 and 4. As the reigning Mountain Eight Tournament Champions, Hartbarger believes they should compete for a conference title.
“Some of our younger girls have been very vocal in practice, and we’re still searching,” he said of developing leaders within the squad. “I think that there’s going to be a team effort there. We’re going to vote on captains [Nov. 26] and set our team goals and our personal goals, and then from that we can kind of develop leaders there.”
“I know that Pisgah will be Pisgah, and we’ll be us. West Henderson may be down a little bit, because they graduated [key players]. East [Henderson] lost their big girl, so I don’t know what they have. Tuscola is struggling – they’ve got like 12, 14 girls in their program – but I’d like to think it will be between us and Pisgah again.”
Boys
After a 20-win season in 2024, their third such campaign in the last four years, Franklin’s men also lost key seniors to graduation. With plenty of talent returning however, the team’s coach expressed confidence.
“We’ve known since this summer that we had all the ingredients of a good team,” said Doug Plemmons, now entering his 25th year at FHS. “We had a practice yesterday and we still don’t have our full squad – I had three guys sitting out tonight that didn’t even get in the game because they’re nursing injuries – but I think once we get everybody together and if we can get healthy, I think we’ve got a chance to have a really good team.”
While losing Max McClure, Noah Brannon, Braylen Dezarn and others hurts, the team returns a quality mix of veterans this winter. In a packed house Tuesday versus Hayesville, several Panthers turned in strong nights.
“I thought our pressure was good, and I thought we sped them up to the point that they were uncomfortable. They shot a lot of open shots, but we had them so revved up thinking that somebody was going to come running at them that even their open shots, they didn’t make a whole lot of them,” said Plemmons. “I’ve been a little concerned about our rebounding, but tonight I thought Peyton Hervey did a really good job on the boards, and I also thought that Jack-Jack [Teeasteskie] and Will [Rauers] scored the ball well. I’m not one for singling players out or saying, ‘This is the star of the game,’ but I thought Gunner McConnell really did some nice things tonight. He was around the ball and stealing and getting out on the fast break, and to see that transition from JV’s last year to varsity this year, he really played well tonight, and he’s been playing well.”
By outscoring the Yellow Jackets in all four “quarters” (27-10, 25-7, 20-7, 19-10), Franklin proved they should have plenty of talent this winter. After Conference Player of the Year Caiden Brewer graduated from East Henderson, the Panthers should be right back in the thick of the Mountain Eight race.
“We’ve got a lot of different weapons, several guys that can shoot from outside, we’re really good in transition, we move the ball up the floor with the pass, we don’t dribble too much, we get it up the floor quick,” said Plemmons. “We’ve got firepower if we can just keep that pressure up. ... The schedule didn’t even show the scrimmage for tonight, so to see this big of a crowd on a Tuesday night – and most of them were our folks – that’s kind of exciting, too. We’ll just take all that fanfare we had during football and volleyball and swing it right on into basketball.”