The season is over for Panther varsity hoops.
On Feb. 27, Franklin’s men’s and women’s teams tipped off the 3A state playoffs, traveling to North Lincoln and Ashe County, respectively. Despite losses to the Huskies and Knights, both teams capped strong 2023-24 season.
Women
By way of a 14-11 record, Franklin’s women entered the tournament as the 3A West’s 26th seed, facing long odds of upsetting seventh-ranked Ashe County. Despite this, the Panthers held their own in the first, getting three points, a block, an assist and a steal from junior Cali Queen. Freshman Audrey Pressley added five more points to end the quarter down 16-13.
Junior Aubrey Haley heated up to start the second, sinking two 3-pointers to put her team up 24-22. Ashe soon answered with a 17-4 run however, ending the half up 39-28.
Pressley continued her strong game after the break, posting three points, an assist and a steal in the third. Despite the freshman’s efforts, Ashe ended the quarter up 54-40.
Senior Avery Williamson tried to will her team back in the fourth, posting two 3-pointers, an assist and a steal. The deficit ultimately proved too great however, and Ashe went on to win 73-58.
“I’m proud of our girls. We battled, we played hard, it was a physical game and we hung right in there with them,” said head coach Scott Hartbarger after the game. “That’s the tallest team we played this year – they had a couple big girls, and it was hard for us to get them boxed out all the time. … The West [Henderson] game here on Senior Night, the Pisgah game in the [Mountain Seven] tournament, and then last night I thought were probably the three best games, besides the Rabun game, that we’ve played all year. I hate it for the seniors; you always want to advance for them, but I’m proud of them and thankful to them for what they’ve given and done for our program.”
In Moffitt, Williamson and Cassidy Parker, Franklin will lose three key seniors to graduation this spring. With a deep and talented corps of juniors however, the team should be well-positioned next season with another year under their belts.
“I think it was a learning year for some of us – it was the first time they had started on the varsity level,” said Hartbarger. “It took a little while to figure it out, but when we got it figured out we were pretty good – beating Rabun, beating West Henderson, and beating some good teams. We didn’t slip up and let anybody steal one from us [in the Mountain Seven] other than the top three teams. I’m excited about next year’s team with the growth that we made this year.”
Men
By way of a 16-9 record, Franklin’s men entered the tournament as the 3A West’s 17th seed, having just missed the chance to host a home game in the round of 32. That right was awarded to their North Lincoln opponents, who earned the 16th seed after a 21-6 season. But while the game was an even match on paper, the Knights came out firing on their home floor.
“They were runners-up in their conference and they lost in the championship of their conference tournament, so they were a good team, and we caught them on a hot night,” said head coach Doug Plemmons after the game. “In watching film and preparing, we watched three different films, and they had two main players and the other guys just kind of played off of them in the film. But last night, every person on their team shot the ball extremely well, and we just couldn’t guard them all. … Their whole team I thought played extremely well, shared the ball, and we just couldn’t match them defensively.”
With a 28-point first quarter, the Knights started fast and never looked back, finishing the game with five players in double figures. On the other end, junior Max McClure poured in 20 points, but no other Panther scored more than 3.
“On offense, it seemed like we were a little bit nervous, or maybe even timid, and weren’t aggressive. And so we ended up shooting a lot of jump shots, and we didn’t shoot the ball well at all,” said Plemmons. “That’s a bad combination when you can’t stop the other team and you’re struggling on offense yourself, so it was a hard way to finish the season. It certainly wasn’t indicative of the effort and execution that we’ve gotten all year long, but you don’t always get to choose how you finish up.”
Despite the loss to North Lincoln, the 2023-24 campaign will go down as a strong one for Franklin, who finished with a 15-8 record this regular season. In a year which 11 of their 15 opponents made the playoffs in their divisions, the Panthers held their own in an extremely competitive season.
“This year in particular I thought our schedule was very tough,” said Plemmons. “And so to come away with a 16-10 record for the season and a 7-5 record in our conference – both winning records, obviously – based on the competition we played and the makeup of our team this year, I just felt like we got a lot out of this team.”
Having lost six key seniors to graduation last spring, including All-Conference players Cal Drake, Parker Cabe and Kehler Lamb, observers weren’t sure what to expect from the Panthers this winter. But with breakout seasons from McClure, freshman Will Rauers and others, the team should be set up for success this coming year.
“We lost so much last year with four out of five starters, and those four seniors played a lot of minutes last year,” said Plemmons of Drake, Cabe, Lamb and Josh Zoellner. “I felt like coming into this year that was gonna be a concern, but the guys that played major minutes for us this year are all returning. When you look at Max, Braylen [Dezarn], Will, Noah [Brannon], Brayden Hervey and Addix [Sutton], those six guys played a ton of varsity basketball. This year I thought it was kind of a question mark for our team going in; next year, I think it’ll be a strength because we’ll have guys that have been through it and understand what it takes.”