WEST — It was like déjà vu as Lorena and Franklin faced each other in a playoff game, this time on the hardwood. But unlike last November in the football playoffs, the Leopards survived the Lions in a 45-42 battle to earn the Class 3A regional quarterfinal win Tuesday night.
After taking a lead in the first half, Lorena (26-9) had to hold off a second-half surge by the Lions (14-10) to advance to a regional semifinal rematch against Hitchcock Friday night at Midway.
“Really, really proud of these guys. Biggest thing I’ll say about these guys is they know how to win," said Leopards head coach Matt Jackson. "They don’t make it easy. They’re taking years off my life, but they know how to finish things off.”
The Lions were a different team coming out of the locker room in the third quarter outscoring Lorena, 30-18, in the second half after going into the break down by 15 points. Franklin disrupted Lorena’s rhythm with an aggressive press and took advantage of the Leopards’ loose ballhandling to force turnovers and convert them into points.
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And after missing 7 of 11 free throws in the first half, the Lions sank 8 for 11 in the second half. Franklin opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run, then added a pair of Cemaurion Smith free throws following a timeout to cut the lead to a possession.
“I don’t know how many shots we landed but we told them they weren’t going to get it easy,” said Franklin head coach Jake Russ. “I told them if they wanted it, to go get it and we’re going to amp it up the entire 16 minutes, and they did it. Maybe that’s on me as a coach and we should’ve pressured the whole time, but we were right there when we were dead in the water. ... We just came a couple minutes short.”
Lorena opened the game on a 7-0 run thanks in part to junior post Seth Taverner’s presence off the glass. Taverner picked up a series of offensive rebounds and kicked them out to Luke Miller for a pair of 3s. The Leopards did a good job of sharing the ball to build up their lead in the first half. In the fourth quarter, Taverner was in foul trouble after attempting to take a charge trying to halt a drive from Lions junior guard Jayden Jackson.
“It really hurt us, for sure, him being in foul trouble because he’s a big force down there,” Coach Jackson said. “He’s one of our most reliable charge-takers too, and that last one was a good call. ... That takes a little bit of size down there, which makes those shots harder. [He brings] rebounding for sure, and he’s a real physical specimen."
But it was a team effort, Jackson said.
“I feel like we got big minutes from Kyler Bosley," Jackson said. "I thought Jaxson Blancett as a freshman going in and playing in a win-or-go-home game in the third round, as a freshman never been in this moment before. Remember, he was playing eighth grade basketball last year and he was bigger and taller and could jump higher than all those poor little eighth graders and now he's playing with grown men."
Jackson also praised Franklin's fight.
"Coach Russ’s team, that’s a really, really good team over there and it took all of us to make that happen tonight," he said.
Senior guard Camden Brock led the Leopards with 15 points, trading buckets with the Lions senior guard Devyn Hidrogo in the final quarter to keep Lorena just ahead of Franklin. Hidrogo, who led the Lions with 15 points, poured out six points over the span of about two minutes to keep the deficit to a possession.
A layup by Jayden Jackson off a steal that followed a scramble for a loose ball briefly made it a one-point game. A pair of free throws by junior guard Rider Seeley gave Lorena some breathing room, and then it was just a matter of holding off Franklin for the next 20 seconds.
Four years in a row, Franklin has started its basketball season late due to the Lions usually playing football deep into December, but Russ said his team has gotten better every year even having to figure things out quickly in a short amount of time. The regional quarterfinal was likely the last matchup between Franklin and Lorena, at least for a while, since the Leopards will be moving up to 4A next season.
Both coaches said the teams have nothing but respect for each other.
“Coach Jackson is one of the best," Russ said. “Love Coach Jackson, and Lorena is a great program. I think they feel the same way about us as we feel about them. There’s a lot of respect, a lot of regards. I’m not going to tell you I’m happy to see them go to 4A because we don’t have to play them anymore.”