The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but a win it was as the Franklin High School Lady Warriors opened the 2018-19 campaign Dec. 14 with a dominant 52-29 over the Red Devils of Hunterdon Central High School.
From the moment senior guard Tiana Jackson opened up the scoring early in the first quarter with a jumper from just outside the key, there was no doubt who was in charge.
Franklin outscored Hunterdon 13-3 in that frame, and extended its lead to 26-15 at the half. The Red Devils didn’t enter double-digits until a full 15 minutes of the game had elapsed.
The Lady Warriors outscored Hunterdon 9-5 in the third period, taking a 35-20 lead at the buzzer.
It was in the last period that Franklin stepped on the gas, outscoring the Red Devils by a margin of 17-9.
The score would have been even more lopsided if the Lady Warriors had been successful in converting more turnovers, a point highlighted by Franklin head coach Audrey Taylor.
“I was a little disappointed in how we converted the turnovers,” she said. “We got the ball turned over, we just didn’t convert.”
Taylor said the girls, some of whom are new to the team, are still working through “the kinks.”
“We’re still working through some kinks with our decision-making process and stuff like that, so it’s going to be a process,” she said. “We’re still getting used to each other, still kind of learning the chemistry a little bit, kind of where each other’s going to be.”
The team’s two veteran seniors, Jackson and point guard Diamond Miller, said they were happy with the win, but noted the team didn’t play it’s best.
“It was OK,” Jackson said. “We’re not going to say it was bad, but I know we can do better.”
“Together as a team, it was a great way to start the season off,” she said. “It was a nice win. We still have a lot of work to do, still so much more that we can pull out of us. So I’m excited.”
“I feel great,” Miller said. “I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to, but that happens and we’re going to move on.”
“I just need to relax,” she said.
Taylor said Miller “played a better second half, she played more controlled. She got herself too worked up in that first half trying to get the ball because of the junk defenses they threw out. But I thought she played well in the second half, really had composure. You saw the difference in how it affected our team.”
The Lady Warriors’ next home game is Dec. 20, against Gil St. Bernard’s, a team which has traditionally been a tough opponent.
“I understand a lot of people have transferred out of there, so it’s going to be a new team to see,” Taylor said of Bernard’s. “But I never underestimate a team that can recruit.”
Here are some scenes from the game:
