It’s five wins down, 16 to go for Panther men’s hoops.
Having won their first three games of the season, Franklin entered the week of Dec. 4 with a full head of steam. In wins over Rabun County and Hayesville, they improved their record to 5-0 ahead of the start of their first Mountain Seven Conference game versus East Henderson Dec. 15.
After beating Rabun 64-57 to open their season in Tiger, on Dec. 5 Franklin welcomed the Wildcats to Tom Raby Court for a rematch. There, junior forward Noah Brannon looked sharp for the Panthers early, making a pair of 3-pointers and a deft move to the basket for two. Freshman forward Will Rauers added an assist, a steal and three points to help end the first quarter up 20-10.
Junior guard Max McClure heated up to start the second, posting six points including two impressive moves to the basket. Rabun kept pace with Franklin at their offensive end however, cutting the Panther lead to 35-29 at the half.
The Wildcats continued to edge closer in the third, chipping away at Franklin’s lead despite two 3-pointers from Brannon and six points and an assist from McClure. Rauers ended the quarter with five points and a steal to give his team a narrow 53-50 lead.
Franklin held Rabun at bay throughout the fourth, getting five points apiece from Brannon and junior center Braydon Hervey. Down 72-69 with 36 seconds to play, the Wildcats were forced to foul the Panthers, who stayed cool at the free throw line to win 77-74.
“I thought the game on Tuesday was a hard-fought game, [as it is] any time we play Rabun,” said Plemmons when reached for comment later in the week. “It’s been a long time since we beat them twice in the same year, I thought our defense was the key. The first time we played them, they hurt us with some post-ups and some dribble penetration in the post and in the lane, and we pretty much closed that down. That freed up [Wildcat sophomore] Huey Blalock, and he turned loose for 25 points. It sounds like we didn’t play good defense on him, but we actually did. He’s a really good player and he made some really tough shots, but as long as we’re making other teams take tough shots, we can live with that.”
After their narrow victory over Rabun, on Dec. 8 the team returned to Tom Raby Court for a game with Hayesville. There, Rauers shot out of the gate for Franklin, racking up two steals and 10 points including two 3-pointers. McClure added six points, an assist and a steal to end the quarter with a commanding 25-11 lead.
Brannon heated up in the second, posting seven points and an assist in the quarter. The Panthers ended the half up 42-25.
Brannon continued his strong game in the third, opening Franklin’s scoring with three of his six points in the quarter. Rauers, guard Braylen Dezarn and center Jacob Gibson added steals to end the period up 55-36.
McClure all but closed out the game in the fourth, scoring eight of their first 10 points to snuff out Hayesville’s comeback hopes. Guard Reed Raby added two assists and a steal to win 76-56.
“We had scrimmaged Hayesville earlier in the year, and had a good, hard scrimmage over there at their place,” said Plemmons. “I knew they would respond well to that scrimmage – we were able to do some things over there that really hurt them; tonight, we tried to do the same things and they were ready for them. … I thought our man-to-man defense was very good, I thought we put a lot of pressure on them and forced them to shoot bad shots, I thought we did a good job getting the ball off the boards and turning it into points for us in transition, and then we had steady half-court offense mainly with Noah, Will and Max contributing from the field as well as from the free throw line.”
After routing Hayesville, Franklin won’t play again until their Mountain Seven Conference opener, a Friday night home clash with East Henderson Dec. 15. Plemmons said they’ll need all the noise they can get from the crowd on Tom Raby Court, and implored all Panther hoops fans to come out and pack the gym.
“I’m real proud of where we’re at right now. Our schedule is kind to us – we’ve really been pushing it since the season started playing five games in basically two weeks, but now we’ll get to catch our breath,” he said, “We’re open on Tuesday so we’re gonna use that to rest up a little bit, and we’ll have all week long next week to prepare for our first conference game. East Henderson’s already got a couple of big wins under their belt – I noticed the other night they beat Hendersonville and [junior guard Caiden Brewer] had 36, so we’re obviously gonna have to give him some special attention and do some things to slow them down.”