The summer league schedule is at an end for Panther women’s hoops.
Throughout May and June, Franklin’s basketball teams have been hard at work, toiling away more than five months from their first official game. In their final summer scrimmage with Cherokee June 25, the varsity Panthers faced their best competition yet, largely holding their own against last year’s 1A State Champions.
Having hosted daylong slates of scrimmages in their first two weeks, Franklin had just one opponent on Tuesday’s schedule, locking horns with the Braves in four separate 20-minute periods. Despite two heads-up steals from Cali Queen, Cherokee showed their quality in the first live period, stifling the Panthers with physical defense and scoring the game’s first 20 points. Franklin regrouped in the final minutes however, getting two steals from Jozy Dehart and a pair of 3-pointers from Makayla Pendergrass. A third shot from Pendergrass rolled in and out of the rim to end the period with Franklin down 23-6.
The home team looked much better to start the second, getting five points and excellent defense from Queen including a steal and a beautiful fake/drive to the basket. Several other Panthers played strong defense down the stretch to end the period down just 18-14.
Both teams remained neck-and-neck throughout the third, in which Queen once again started out hot with six points and a steal. Junior forward Katelyn Foster added eight points of her own, including the period’s final basket to put her team up 17-16.
Cherokee shot out of the gate in the final period, scoring its first eight points to force two early Panther timeouts. After talking things over Queen tried to spark a comeback with four points and a steal, but the deficit proved too great and Franklin was outscored 23-16.
While of course the Panthers would have liked to outscore Cherokee in all four periods, the main goal of summer league play is to build intrasquad cohesion and to test new players, lineups and tactics. To that end the physical and talented Braves were the perfect team with which to end their offseason work, helping Franklin prepare for their top Mountain Seven Conference rivals. Many players will now turn their attention to fall volleyball before the first official day of preseason basketball Oct. 23.