The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Fourth-quarter domination by the Franklin High School Lady Warriors basketball team led to victory March 5 in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 4 tournament championship round.
The Lady Warriors overwhelmed the Hillsborough High School Raiders in the final eight minutes of the game, outscoring their arch rivals 22-2 and winning the chip, 52-41.
Franklin was down by nine points at the beginning of the frame, having traded leads with Hillsborough in the first three quarters.
Head Coach Jimmy Kreie said he wasn’t fazed by the deficit at the end of three.
“We’ve been down before, we’ve been up before,” he said. “It’s all the same stuff. You just got to keep playing.”
“We caught fire in the third and fourth quarter,” he said. “When we needed it most from some of our most important players, they started hitting shots.”
Senior Alissa Myers had scored eight points total in the first three quarters, but she came alive in the fourth, recording 12 points, nine of which came from outside the arc, and finished with a game-leading 20 points.
“Alissa’s got like 30 threes in the last nine games,” Kreie said. “She’s hitting three of them a game.”
Myers said the team’s mindset was simple.
“Well, we already know that Hillsborough is our rival school, so the mindset was just keep fighting no matter what,” she said.
She said being down nine points didn’t really faze the team.
“We’re normally down more in the games that we play, so we knew that being down nine wasn’t too much for us,” she said. “So we just kept fighting and stuck with each other.”
“We know how they were coming out, and we came out even stronger,” she said.
Here’s the moment the Lady Warriors won the game:
Junior Aleah Sunkins scored 11 points, six of them in the fourth quarter.
Sunkins went 5-for-5 overall from the foul line, and 4-for-4 in the last frame alone.
“We had to come in here and win,” she said. “We were down, but our senior Alissa … brought us up and we just had energy from there.”
Sunkins, who played most of the game with an injured thumb, said she was happy with her performance.
“I feel like I did okay,” she said. “I could have done better, but my teammates, they had my back, making shots, going to the free throw line, so they got me.”
The first half was tight. with both teams keeping pace with each other and trading leads.
Franklin led after the first, 13-11, and at the half, 21-20.
Hillsborough looked like they were grabbing control of the game in the third quarter, outscoring Franklin 19-9 and looking at the fourth quarter leading 39-30.
But the Lady Warriors weren’t ready to stop playing this season. They ramped up their defense and held Hillsborough to two free throws while scoring 22 points.
“I’m happy for the kids and their families,” Kreie said. “I’m proud of them. They did everything they possibly could to get to this point and now we get to practice again.”
Kreie said the group championship was “the best win this year.”
“This one is very special to have it here, to bring glory back to this incredibly storied team,” he said.
Sophomore Jamila McRiney scored 10 points, Senior Kayla Duncan and Junior Alivia Stewart scored four points each, and Senior Gianna Mattia scored three points.
Here are some scenes from the game:
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