Rivalry win shows Franklin County girls’ basketball is putting the pieces together
In Thursday night’s 46-27 victory against No. 24 Anderson County, No. 20 Franklin County entered the second half looking like an entirely different team from the one that played in the first.
The Flyers had trailed 18-16 at halftime.
“They have beat us three years in a row and we wanted to break that,” Franklin County junior Rachel Shropshire said after her team’s victory. “So we gave it everything we got.”
No one on the Flyers’ roster had known what it felt like to beat the Bearcats. Prior to Thursday’s win, the last time Franklin County defeated Anderson County was 55-44 victory on Jan. 23, 2019. Since then, Anderson County has knocked Franklin County out of the Girls’ Sweet Sixteen tournament twice — in 2020 and 2021.
Franklin County (15-4, 2-0 in the 11th Region, 2-0 in the 41st District) had suffered its first loss in late December, a 73-71 overtime heart-breaker against Assumption in the Rockets’ Christmas tournament. Its other losses were to Red Boiling Springs (Tenn.), Russell and Montgomery County.
“We’ve been pretty bad defensively, and tonight we weren’t,” Franklin County coach Joey Thacker said after Thursday’s win. “We’ve really had to take the time to emphasize that end of the floor. You know, we fell in love with the idea we could outscore people. We’re not good enough to do that. And our teams have always played good defense. [Tonight] we were way more coachable, and we’ve gotta continue to be that way on the defensive end of the floor because, yes, we’re big. But we’re not fast enough to play the type of defense we’ve played in the past. We’ve gotta play more assignment-oriented stuff.”
Anderson County outscored Franklin County 10-4 in the first quarter despite an obvious height disparity between the teams. While Franklin County was having issues finding ways to score, the Bearcats took advantage of their guards’ abilities to shoot the ball.
Anderson County sophomore Lainey Johnson, the team’s leading scorer on both the season and the night, is averaging 23.0 points per game this season, yet ultimately Franklin County was able to limit her to 13 this time around.
The Flyers played in a two-three zone throughout the game, but they always ensured that Johnson was guarded man-to-man. She scored 10 points in the first half. Thanks to adjustments made at halftime, Johnson didn’t score at all in the third quarter and was held to three in the fourth.
So what was that halftime conversation like? Thacker was visibly frustrated as his team left the floor.
“He told us to work as a team,” Shropshire said. “And we had to defend better than what we were doing. And we couldn’t leave 31 [Johnson] because she was their best player. And we stopped her. She only scored three points in the second half.”
The Flyers turned the game around in the third quarter, outscoring the Bearcats 18-4, by tightening up their defense and taking better shots.
“Well, we made a few shots to start the third quarter,” Thacker said. “And we couldn’t make anything to begin the game. That’s kinda been our MO against ‘em the last three years, is we just couldn’t make any jump shots. Rachel [Shropshire] got going there with a couple and we did a really good job of finding Jhaven [Meade] one time on the break. And it kinda gave us a little bit of cushion, and most importantly it gave us a little bit of confidence.”
The reigning back-to-back-to-back 11th Region champion Flyers have four players averaging double figures in scoring this season. Shropshire leads the way with 10.8 points, followed by Jazmin Chambers (10.7), Julianna Frazee (10.1) and freshman Logan Kennedy (10.0).
Frazee also averages a team-high 6.7 rebounds. Meade and Kennedy both contribute 5.9 boards per game.
“We really don’t have that one go-to person,” Thacker said. “And you saw that tonight. We’ve got about 10 kids that play. Eight or nine of those kids could lead us in scoring on any night based on the minutes they play. Logan has grown up as a freshman point guard, and she’s gotta continue to do that because people are really gonna come at her because of her youth.”
Franklin County, back in action on Friday night, won 63-19 against Frankfort.
This story was originally published January 20, 2023 at 8:43 PM.
