Rocky Grove continued to struggle in Region 2 play as they ran into the fourth-quarter wall against Cochranton Monday night. 

The 1A Orioles, who play in a region of mostly 2A teams, have fallen to 6-10 on the season following a hard-fought 26-57 loss to the Cardinals. 

Rocky Grove worked hard to hang with Cochranton for the first half, including leading the game for several minutes of the first quarter.

​After one it was 10-6 in favor of the Cardinals, who employed a mid-court or full-court press most of the game.

​Heading into the locker room at the half, Rocky Grove was still within striking distance at 16-23. 

In the third quarter, Cochranton hit three treys and started to pull away, despite a lot of hustle and defensive effort by Rocky Grove.  

Rae Montgomery had a team-high 10 points. Zoe Cresswell had six. Emily Rice and Aislynee Anderson had four apiece. and Paige Cresswell at two. 

“It’s cool to have an undefeated season, but now we want to win the championship,” Rocky Grove Junior High basketball coach Jarrad Griffin said moments after the regular season finale in Titusville.
​
His junior Orioles went 18-0 this season, including a 55-51 triple overtime win against Eisenhower.
​
They move on to the off-season to play Conneaut Lake in the first round of a four-team conference play-off among the top teams.

That game is slated for 4 p.m. Monday at Cochranton High School.

​The winner of that game will take on the winner of the Cochranton versus Warren game. The championship game is slated for Tuesday.
​
Griffin said his team has played and beaten everybody in the playoffs, but noted, they were all close wins.

The team is mostly eighth graders with just three seventh graders. The leader of the team in all categories is eighth-grader Preston Keith. “Preston is just bigger, faster, stronger, quicker. All of it,” Griffin said, not just about his team but those they play.
​
Griffin has been impressed with his team’s chemistry throughout the season.
​
“These kids have been playing together for a long time and they have played a lot of basketball. They just want to be in the gym,” he said. “They make our job easy. When we show up to practice, we have kids that want to be there and they want to work hard. And they all have each others back, if we have one (kid) having an off-night or one who is down, we have an entire group of nine or ten kids there to pick them back up.”

Griffin is flanked by coaches Koby Winslow and Josh Keith.
​
Beside Preston Keith, the undefeated players who all have key roles are Liam Grigsby, Ryder Green, Max Griffin, Xavier Gordon, Dreyden Hughes, Carter Manning, Noah Baldwin, Brody Anderson, Tariq Ali, Raymond Mutzig,
Griffin said the team averages less than 10 turnovers and over 20 rebounds a game. They are also profit stealers with more 12 each game.
They have outscored their opponents by 20 points on average.
​
“They’re a very patient team. We’ve had some games when we’ve been down and they just keep their cool and they slowly chip away and fight back. It takes a lot to rattle these kids,” Griffin said. “This whole group is just big, athletic, strong. They are a good group of kids.”
​
As Griffin said, they’re not done yet and a social media post welcomed community members to come out and support them at 4 p.m. Monday at Cochranton High School.

Franklin opened Friday night's game with a 20-point run and never looked back as the Knights easily handled visiting Conneaut 63-21 in Region 6 play. 

Quick hands and tough defense led to several steals in the first quarter as the Knights held the Eagles scoreless for the first seven and a half minutes ​of the game.

They balanced their struggle to hit three-point shots most of the game with control of the boards on both ends of the court and amassed a commanding 38-10 lead at the half.

​Even with the running clock in play and the starters sitting out the final stanza, Franklin outscored CASH 25-11 in the second half.   

Jalen Wood led Franklin with 24 points. Cole Buckley had 11. Brothers Damarco and Dreyden Payne had eight apiece. Jamison Wofford (4), Ethan Umbenhauer (3), Ian Higley (3) and Darrius Graham (2) all contributed to the Franklin offensive effort. 

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

You may notice that the photographs in this story are from the Franklin versus Oil City game on Monday night.

​We covered this game with good solid notetaking with the idea of writing a game story that night and posting it the next day.

Life happened. 

We learned the principle of the seven Ps, that tongue twister we've known for a long time.

Or so we thought.

​Nope.

​With life going on all around us and new commitments changing old schedules, a minor meltdown, reorganizing and a lot of deep breaths later, 34 realized that ... nope, still haven't quite learned the lesson.

Franklin girls basketball won Monday night and again Thursday against Meadville. We know this because, after passing the Franklin buses leaving town and still holding out hope we weren't too late for the game, we learned that Meadville does not have a junior varsity squad. Therefore, the varsity game started at 6 p.m., not the usual 7:15-30.

Everyone knew this but us, who decided that tradition outweighed fact and research.

​It came as an ironic moment for us. Earlier in the day we gave a presentation to a group of high school journalism students. Among the things addressed - the importance of honest factual reportage and being prepared with proper research to tell stories.

Seriously, we talked to a group of students today about how to best cover stories.

​Irony is a fickle little you know what.

Had we done our "Proper Prior Planning,"  we would've known there was no junior varsity game Thursday and the varsity game started at 6 p.m. 

Meadville's coach Shannon Pietroski got us caught up in the parking lot because we never made it in the door. Her growing-less-patient daughter sat in the car waiting to go home as us "olds" chatted about things we thought mattered for a few moments.

The coach told me that Meadville girls basketball has eight girls on a good night. The years of the Dean Henderson coached Bulldogs dominance seemed to be over.

On this night the Dawgs had six dressed players to face Franklin who is one of the top teams in northwest Pennsylvania with a 6-2 shot-blocking center Katie Boal, one of the best point guards in the business Estella Adams and the Blum twins who seem to swap games shooting lights out from all over the court, mot to mention one of the toughest athletes in any sport in Kirsten Hicks.

The winless Bulldogs didn't really have a chance and the 51- 23 score could've been predicted, but Pietroski stood in the light foggy drizzle of the parking lot with her car running talking about her young team's ability to play hard and improve game after game.

The Knights' defense kept the Rockets grounded as Franklin defeated Titusville 83-19 in Region 6 play Friday night. 

Franklin stymied Titusville's offensive attack most of the night, earning a 47-17 lead at the half. With the running clock in play for the majority of the second half, the Knights went on a 34-point run that carried through the third quarter and over the halfway point of the fourth.

​Franklin began the final stanza with a combination of non-starters and with 2:30 left, freshman Alex Umbenhauer subbed in for his brother Ethan and it was only underclassmen on the floor. 

Franklin showed off the depth of their squad, made up primarily of seniors, and had four players score in the double digits, including a career-high 10 for Darrius Graham.

Jalen Wood led the Knights with a game-high 24 points, including four three-pointers, and dished four assists. Cole Buckley added 17 points and 10 rebounds. Damarco Payne had 12 points and five assists.

Dreydan Payne at six points and six assists. Gavin Eakin contributed four points and four assists. And Ethan Umbenhauer sunk two three-pointers for a career-high six points. Franklin's only other senior, Damon Curry, remains on the mend and spent the game cheering on his teammates.   

Sophomore Ian Higley had four points at the close of the game. 

Isiah Colon led the Rockets with 13 points. 

In an unual moment, Franklin's Gary Kiselka defeated CASH's Drew Dygert as the Knights beat Conneaut 51-17 Wednesday night.

​t wasn't that Kiselka got a pin that was unusual, he had almost a dozen going into the match against sophomore Dygert, who was 12-6. It was the way it happened that left everyone in the relativiely quiet Castle wondering why the two wrestlers were called to the center of the mat and Kiselka's arm raised victory.

The 215 pounders were embroiled in a tight match when they got tangled up - both upside down vying for control. Dygert appeared to lose balance and ended up flat on his shoulders with Kiselka slighly on top. The referee blew his whistle and called it a pin. Dygert essentially pinned himself.

​Neither wrestler seemed to realize it was over. Kiselka was awarded the pin despite looking out of position and not in control of the match.

A fast-paced contest from the moment Warren won the tip-off, the Dragons employed a full-court press most of the night, which at times seemed to frustrate the Knights, who were playing without Damon Curry. For the first six minutes of play, it appeared Warren might walk away with the game as they jumped to a 12-5 lead. 

But the Knights battled back. Dreyden Payne connected for two quick baskets followed by Buckley's first two foul shots, and suddenly it was a 12-11 game going into the second quarter. 

The second stanza was a back-and-forth sprint up and down the court with seven ties or lead changes. At the end of the half, Franklin held on to a one-point lead at 23-22. 

Halftime adjustments came out in favor of the Knights, as Buckley and Damarco Payne took control of the scoreboard for Franklin. Damaro had eight of his 16, Buckley added six of his own, and Franklin increased their lead to 37-34.

Buckley exploded in the fourth with 12 points. With less than 3:30 minutes left in play, Franklin had a commanding 10-point lead at 52-42. Then the Dragons came roaring back. Warren scored five unanswered baskets in two minutes. ​

With less than 50 seconds to go, Wood sunk two foul shots. Warren answered with a quick bucket to tie it up again with 30 seconds left in play. 

Franklin inbounded the ball and looked for their shot. Wood, who leads the team in scoring this season according to stats listed by the Erie Times-News, found his moment and launched one from the right side of the court. Pay dirt. ​

Wood finished the night with 10 points. Buckley had 26. Damarco Payne had 16 points, including four three-pointers. And Dreyden Payne at four points. 

Brady Berdine led Warren with 23 points. 

Franklin, who improved to 8-4 on the season, returns to action on Friday when they visit Titusville for another Region 6 game. 

"This is the biggest defensive possession of the game right here," head coach Ryan Justice told his team during a fourth-quarter timeout Monday night.

The Knights(8-5) had opened the stanza with four points by sophomore Halle Curry to gain control of what previously was a back-and-forth contest with the visiting 11-3 Maplewood Tigers.

"Dig in defensively," he told his squad as the scoreboard read 32-25. In the final seven minutes of the game, the Knights had amassed 15 more points and held the Tigers to just four - all foul shots. 

It's fair to say, they dug in defensively.

They blocked shots, forced turnovers and gave very few uncontested looks. It took Maplewood three minutes to score their first point of the quarter - a single foul shot. The Tigers did not score again until both teams had cleared their benches to let the JV squads battle out the final two minutes.

The night ended with a Knights victory 47-25.