“It deflated us a little bit,” said Franklin coach John Rossi, whose squad finished the regular season at 17-4. “I think our seniors are a little upset. I think the kids in our program are upset. But it’s high school basketball. Sometimes you’ve got to go ahead and accept the fact that Waynesville’s got a good team, a good program, and we were right there.
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“It was a tournament-type basketball game, and they made more plays at crunch time than we did. Maybe we could’ve made a couple more adjustments later, but the bottom line is you’ve got to be able to make plays late in the game.
“It’s a tough loss, but there’s a reason they’re undefeated. We’ve got to take a step back and say, ‘Hey, let’s let this be our only loss in February.’ ”
Layne Ferrell tallied 22 points, 10 rebounds and three assists for Franklin. Brooke Stover added nine points and five boards.
The Wildcats are seeded first in the Division II Lebanon sectional and will open against No. 14 Ross (2-20) next Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
“I think we’ll be fine. This was a good game for us before the tournament,” Ferrell said. “We’ll work harder in practice next week and get ready for Saturday.”
Waynesville, ranked third in the latest Associated Press Division III state poll, is 21-0. For now, it’s the first perfect regular season in program history.
Spartans coach Tim Gabbard said he might add a game before his top-seeded team begins Covington sectional play against either No. 12 Benjamin Logan or No. 11 National Trail on Feb. 19.
“It’s a special bunch of girls,” Gabbard said. “We lost one last year and one the year before, so it’s great for them to finally get that undefeated season.”
Waynesville got to 21-0 the hard way, winning four times in the last eight days against Portsmouth Notre Dame, Preble Shawnee, Valley View and Franklin.
“That’s a good gauntlet. We’re tired, but we made it through,” Gabbard said. “Personally, I like to play the harder teams at the end of the year. These games get us ready for the tournament.”
The Spartans ran off seven straight points after falling behind 40-39 with 3:22 remaining. Ferrell hit a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left and another trey at the buzzer, sandwiched around a pair of Rachel Murray free throws.
It was Senior Day for Murray, Marcella Sizer, Kenna Harvey and Lynzie Hartshorn. Murray led the way with five 3-pointers, 21 points and four assists, while Sizer had 10 points and eight rebounds. Hartshorn added six points, five steals and four assists.
Murray fired in four treys in the first half and 11 points in the first quarter. Waynesville jumped ahead 23-11 and only trailed once in the half — that was 29-28 at intermission after a late 3-pointer by the Wildcats’ Jordan Rogers.
Gabbard was actually happy to be within a point at the break, considering Sizer and Kenzie Purkey were essentially first-half spectators thanks to early foul problems.
“All the girls know the Franklin people and Franklin girls, so we knew it would be a tight game. We had to get off to a good start,” Gabbard said. “With Sizer and Purkey in foul trouble, Lydia Anderson came in and did a great job for us.”
Sizer, headed to Youngstown State University to play soccer, did all of her scoring in the second half and was 8-of-8 at the foul line. Purkey finished with six rebounds.
“I think we calmed down a little bit on offense (in the second half),” Murray said. “We knew we had to take some better shots and take care of the ball a little more and step up on defense, which I think we did.”
Franklin committed 11 of its 17 turnovers after intermission in the matchup of Southwestern Buckeye League divisional champions.
“We came out the second half, we had the basketball, and two out of our first three possessions we turn it over,” Rossi said. “Good teams just can’t do that. We’ve got to find that killer instinct as this tournament gets ready to start.”
Rogers scored seven points for the Wildcats. Kaylee Harris chipped in six points and seven boards.
“We said, ‘If Layne gets 20, OK, but don’t let the other ones score,’ ” Gabbard said. “So it worked out pretty good.”
“They’re a very good team and did what they needed to do, but I also think that we didn’t do what we needed to do,” Ferrell said. “We just didn’t have it today. I think we were kind of looking past this game, and you can’t look past Waynesville.”
Murray said the big win on Senior Day “was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.” She said the Spartans are ready to start focusing on a deep tournament run.
“We knew we had a shot this year with these girls,” Murray said of the perfect regular season. “Once we hit like 15-0, we were like, ‘OK, this could be pretty special if we do this.’ But then we knew we had Valley View Thursday and Franklin today, two big ones at the end. Just pulling those off means everything going into our postseason.”
Gabbard has high hopes for the postseason as well, but he said Versailles remains the team to beat because of its tradition.
This is Gabbard’s 39th season directing the Spartans. He’s a 1973 Franklin graduate, so facing the Wildcats is a big deal for him.
“I win either way,” Gabbard said. “If Franklin wins, I’m a Wildcat. If the Spartans win, we’re still good. Johnny does a great job with those girls. He’s brought them a long way. I think they’ll make a deep run in the tournament too.”
Franklin 11-18-7-10—46
Waynesville 20-8-6-14—48
FRANKLIN (17-4): Jordan Rogers 3 0 7; Layne Ferrell 8 2 22; Brooke Stover 4 1 9; Emily Newton 1 0 2; Kaylee Harris 2 2 6. Totals: 18-5-46
WAYNESVILLE (21-0): Marcella Sizer 1 8 10; Kenzie Purkey 1 0 2; Carli Brown 1 0 2; Rachel Murray 6 4 21; Lynzie Hartshorn 2 1 6; Leah Butterbaugh 2 0 5; Lydia Anderson 1 0 2. Totals: 14-13-48
3-pointers: F 5 (Ferrell 4, Rogers), W 7 (Murray 5, Hartshorn, Butterbaugh)
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