Mt. Vernon’s Ellery Minch battles under the basket against Franklin, Thursday.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — It took Franklin one quarter to shake off the rust.
Last year’s Class 4A state runner-up Grizzly Cubs outscored Mt. Vernon 19-5 in the second quarter, in picking up a 49-31 season-opening win over the Marauders at Mt. Vernon High School Thursday.
It was Mt. Vernon’s second game. It dropped to 1-1 after a Tuesday victory at Whiteland.
“All five of our starters played fall sports. We were taking some good shots but we weren’t shooting a very good percentage,” Franklin coach Mike Armstrong said. “It’s going to take us a little while to find our shooting legs and our basketball legs and I think we’ll be fine.
“In the second quarter we were able to make shots, but we struggled to make shots in other parts of the game.”
In the second quarter, Franklin had five 3-pointers from four different players. Defensively, the Grizzly Cubs helped cause seven second-period Marauder turnovers, including two five-counts on in-bounds plays and a 10-second violation.
Mt. Vernon coach Julie Shelton thought a lot of the second-quarter troubles were due to foul trouble to one of its top and most veteran players. Senior Khloe Patterson sat most of the quarter due to personal fouls.
Shelton has just three players, Patterson, Easton Wampler and Ellery Minch that played significant minutes last season.
“We have to find a way to keep her out of foul trouble, because when she is on the floor we’re pretty good,” Shelton said. “She’s our release (on out of bounds plays) and is our senior leader. We need her leadership on the floor.
“We have to find a way to keep her out of foul trouble and we have to get a couple of more kids some experience where they are confident enough to step up a little. Easton, Khloe and Ellery are the only three that really have a lot of experience and it’s been pretty evident. We have to get the others more confident and keep Khloe on the floor with her leadership.”
“The stretch in the second quarter kind of gapped the game for us,” Armstrong added.
Mt. Vernon had a 6-0 stretch in the fourth quarter to cut Franklin’s lead to 41-28 with 3:17 to go. Kanyonrae Kenny, Patterson and Wampler all had buckets.
Grizzly Cubs junior forward Brooklyn York followed with a pair of steals and layups to help extend the visitors lead back to 19.
Mt. Vernon was led by Wampler with 10 points. Minch had nine. Patterson and Kenny each scored five.
The Grizzly Cubs had a balanced scoring attack. Erica Buening had a team-best 11 points. Kyndell Jochim and Scarlett Kimbrell each had 10 and York scored nine. Franklin made nine 3-pointers.
Franklin plays Columbus North, at home, Saturday. Mt. Vernon hosts Warren Central Saturday.
