Undefeated Franklin clamps down on defense, hands Attleboro first loss

FRANKLIN – In front of a packed and electric crowd, the top two teams in the MIAA Div. 1 boys basketball rankings gave the crowd a show from start to finish.

It was No. 11 Franklin which once again topped a tough top-ranked Attleboro squad in a Hockomock Kelley-Rex showdown thanks to exceptional defense in the second half to roll to a 52-37 victory on Friday night.

“Our defense was terrible in the first five or six minutes of the game and we got lucky to survive the storm,” said Franklin coach CJ Neely. “We knew that first couple of minutes was going to be just insane with a state tournament-type environment. Some of these guys have been there before. They’re not worried about those moments.”

After trading buckets early in the third, junior Justice Samuels provided a spark with six of his eight points in the third, including a couple steals and offensive boards for Franklin (9-0).

“We’ve been on him a lot this year. We’ve been pushing him to be a little bit more aggressive on the offensive glass, get back and get some deflections defensively,” Neely said about the junior’s play in the third. “I thought tonight you could see it was a different level of speed from the sprint to the floor and with him getting on the glass.”

Senior Caden Sullivan (23 points) finished the third with a three-pointer followed by an old-fashioned three-point play to make it a 41-35 advantage after three as the Panthers led for the first time since 2-0 in the first.

From there, Franklin dug in even deeper and allowed just two points in the fourth and ended the contest on a 17-2 run while allowing just 4-of-20 shooting in the second half for Attleboro (7-1).

It was all about the defense in the first quarter as Attleboro held Franklin to 2-of-14 shooting from the field and 0-of-3 from distance to lead 10-6 after one.

“Offense has been a little bit of an adventure,” said Nelly about the slow start. “We talked about the identity of this team being the defense, and getting stops, really getting out and turning people over and just locking things down and pushing and eventually we’ll break through. Offensively, we settled down a little bit and I think we were trying too early to attack and get in the lane. … We changed that (in the final three quarters) and we took some better shots.”

The lead was pushed out to 16-8 early in the second thanks to a couple easy buckets in the paint for senior captain Raheim Orleans, who finished the first half with 11 points and eight rebounds.

From there, Franklin caught fire from the field and used a 13-6 run to knot it up 25-25 before junior Isaiah Outland nailed a corner three for the Blue Bombardiers. For the Panthers, senior Jack Olmstead (12 points) netted all eight of his first half points in the second and a putback fadeaway jumper made it a 28-27 contest at the half.