Columbus North’s Hadassah Hurt brings the ball down the court against Franklin in the first round of the sectional at Shelbyville, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.
Paige Grider | For The Republic
SHELBYVILLE — When the Columbus North and Franklin girls met Thanksgiving Weekend, the Grizzly Cubs dominated to the tune of a 65-28 victory.
Tuesday’s rematch was far more dramatic. It wasn’t decided until the final three seconds when Lauren Klem rebounded a missed 3-pointer to allow Franklin to escape with a 48-45 victory in the opening round of the Shelbyville Sectional.
“Early in the season, we were able to make some shots early in the game and were able to gap them, and things just kind of snowballed from there,” Franklin coach Mike Armstrong said. “I never once thought it was going to be anything like the first game. Tournament games are usually more half-court, and I thought they did a better job of getting out and guarding us on the perimeter and taking things away. I thought they also did a good job of mixing in zone and man and making us change what we were doing. We just didn’t shoot the ball very well from the perimeter or free-throw line, and they were making enough plays to stay in the game.”
The Grizzly Cubs (16-5) advance to play Whiteland in Friday’s first semifinal.
The Bull Dogs (14-9) came out in a zone to start Tuesday’s matchup and caused Franklin a little trouble and tailed only 15-13 after one quarter. The second period featured nine lead changes and ended with a 25-24 lead following a 3-pointer at the buzzer from Hadassah Hurt.
North took its biggest lead at 31-26 with 5:15 left in the third quarter, but shortly after, leading rebounder Kathryn Wilson picked up her fourth foul and headed to the bench. Still, the Bull Dogs maintained a 40-38 lead after three quarters.
“We started out in a zone just go give them a different look,” North coach Brett White said. “We hadn’t seen many teams that had tried that, and I thought it got them a little bit on their heels. We tried to mix in man, zone, just to make them guess, and I thought we did a pretty good job of contesting. What we didn’t do a good job of at times was getting those rebounds, and then they got some stuff in transition in the second half that got them some easy buckets.”
The Grizzly Cubs turned up the defense in the fourth quarter and held North without a basket until Hurt hit a 3-pointer with 53 seconds remaining to cut Franklin’s lead to 46-43. After a turnover, Hurt converted a one-and-one to make it a one-point game.
Another turnover gave the ball back to the Bull Dogs, but North was then called for a 5-second violation. The Bull Dogs fouled Brooklyn York with 13 seconds left, and she missed the front end of a one-and-one, but got her own rebound and got it to Scarlett Kimbrell, who was fouled and made two free throws with 9.5 seconds left.
North then got the ball to Hurt, who missed a 22-footer with 3 seconds left, and Franklin was able to run out the clock.
“I thought we really toughened up in the last minute of the game defensively,” Armstrong said.
Kimbrell led the Grizzly Cubs with 14 points.
“We prepared our defense a lot better,” Hurt said. “We really focused on who we had and made sure that we covered them. The coaches did a great job of getting us ready.”
“Overall, I can’t complain with how the girls carried out our game plan,” White said. “They did a good job with that. I’m just extremely proud of what we were able to do tonight and the fight that we showed.”
Hurt finished with 14 points to lead the Bull Dogs. Wilson had 10 points and six rebounds.
“She hit some really big shots tonight,” White said. “I knew it was going to be difficult to get Lauren (Barker) shots, and that opened up some other things, and Hadassah was one of the people that was able to step up and make plays.”
Barker, who went over the 1,000-point mark in the last game of the regular season game, added seven points in her final career game. Seniors Emma Long and Kayla Jones also played their final career games.
“They’re three great basketball players and three great people,” White said. “Lauren gets a lot of the publicity as far as her scoring, and she should. She showed a lot of consistency. Emma gave us great leadership and a lot of stability at the point, and she was able to do a lot of things on the defensive end and then Kayla was just our energy, She came to us last year and she just gave us that person we could put out there and pressure the basketball and cause havoc, and she filled her role really well the last two years.”
Franklin 48, Columbus North 45
Franklin;15;9;16;8;—;48
Columbus North;11;14;13;7;—;45
Franklin (16-5): Josie Phillips 0 0-0 0, Lauren Klem 2 0-0 5, Scarlett Kimbrell 5 2-2 14, Erica Buening 4 1-3 9, Emma Sappenfield o 0-0 0, Kyndell Jochim 4 3-6 11, Brooklyn York 4 0-0 9. Totals: 19 6-11 48.
Columbus North (14-9): Kathryn Wilson 4 2-2 10, Lauren Barker 3 0-0 7, Olivia Johnson 1 0-0 2, Elise Preston 0 0-0 0, Kennedy Horn 1 2-4 4, Kayla Jones 1 3-5 5, Kaitlin White 0 0-0 0, Miley McClellan 0 0-0 0, Emma Long 0 3-4 3, Hadassah Hurt 4 4-5 14. Totals: 14 14-20 45.
3-point goals: Franklin 4 (Kimbrell 2, Klem, York); Columbus North 3 (Hurt 2, Barker).
