Fairview's Archie Murphey hit a jump shot as the clock ran down to score a victory for the Tigers and an MVP trophy for himself in the final game of Franklin's Dick Russell Memorial Basketball Tournament.

The Knights looked poised to cruise to victory over the Tigers in the Thursday night matchup.

Franklin was up 12-3 at the end of one and 29-21 at the half.

But the Tigers came out of the locker room ready to claw back from behind, nearly matching each Franklin basket with two of their own. With less than a minute left in the third quarter the score was tied at 39 all.
Franklin went into the fourth quarter with a three-point advantage after Jalen Wood hit a three to close out the third.

More photos from both games below.

At the Cranberry tournament up the road, the Franklin girls dropped the championship game to Harbor Creek 39-15. The Oil City girls won the consolation 40-37 against the host Cranberry squad.

The Franklin girls jumped out to score their first basket within 10 seconds of tipoff and never looked back as they defeated the Berries 43-22 on the opening night of the Cranberry's holiday tournament. 

The Knights built a commanding lead of 18-3 at the end of the first quarter. The Berries had their strongest showing in the second quarter outscoring the Knights and cutting the deficit to 11 heading into the locker room 23-12. 

​Our friend, Penny Weichel, who keeps track of Venango County sports on her Route 8 Rivalry website, reported that Nate Pfennigwerth was invited to attend the Kohl's Future Stars Camp in Florida this January. 

He competed in the Eastern Winter Showcase on Dec. 3 at Thiel College in Greenville. Eight & 322 photographer Richard Sayer happened to be at the event and caught a few photos of Pfennigwerth in action. 

To read more check out Weichel's report at ​https://www.route8rivalry.com/franklin

Fundamentals. ​

During the second quarter, Farrell tried an extreme slowdown tactic. After more than a minute of dribbling near the half court line, they forced Franklin out of its zone defense. It also helped the Steelers take a 26-24 lead as they were heading into the locker rooms at half. 

​In the third quarter foul shots began really playing a key role. 

With Franklin down 35-28, they then hit four foul shots to end the quarter down just three points 35-32.

Quickly into the fourth quarter Franklin began to find themselves regularly visiting the foul line. They got two more free throws to pull within one.

Damon Curry, who had been largely silenced most of the night by the Steelers defense, ended with nine fourth quarter points, many from the foul line. He scored 13 total on the night.

Wood had a game high of 14 points for the Knights.

Ethan Owens also came up big out of the gate for the Knights almost single handedly keeping them in the game with seven first quarter points. Cole Buckley was also solid from the line scoring five of his seven points  with free throws.

In the end, Franklin maintained its cool, nailed it from the line and walked away with a 53-42 win. 

Below are a few more photos from the night at the Castle. See even more by clicking here.

It started out looking like the Manny Perez show Tuesday night as the Titusville Rockets hosted cross-town and over the gravel pit and woods rivials Maplewood for a boys basketball game.

The two squads faced each other at the start of the season in the consolation game of the Rocky Grove tip-off tournament. That affair ended up with Titusville cruising to a 61-27 victory.

The Titusville girls defeated Sharon 97-60 during their home meet Monday night. The boys dropped a close one - 82-76.

The girls dominated from the get-go, starting with three out of the four top spots in the 200 medley relay and Korryn Schmader dominating in the 200 freestyle winning by more than 12 seconds over teammate Emma Slocum and more the 20 seconds ahead of Sharon's Julliana Martin.
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In the first race, the boys had a dramatic finish in the medley relay.

​Sharon's Mark Cattron gave his squad a nearly six-second lead after the backstroke. But Titusville's breaststroke swimmer Alex Reynolds more than made up that deficit giving them a three-second lead going into the butterfly. Joe Herman added a couple seconds to that lead before the final freestyle leg where Sharon's Nate Dorsch exploded to make up the difference and edge out Titusville's Aiden Patterson. However, a disqualification still gave the win to the Rockets. 

​You can see complete results from the boys and girls meet by clicking here.

​Below are more photos from the first two boys and girls heats. (We were not able to stay longer this time.)

The Rockets girls basketball team has struggled this season, but they appeared to be ready to play Saturday. At least they came out of the gate swinging... and scoring points. Other than their first game, they have been averaging under 10 points a game. They doubled that on Saturday giving the Oil City Oilers a tough first quarter and even half.

The Orioles came out in the second half more aggressive employing a half court press. 

It was obvious that Titusville was going to win the home contest against Seneca Wednesday night. The Rockets have a full squad compared to Bobcat's six competitive wrestlers. The first contested match of the night, between Brock Covell wrestling up a weight and Seneca's Ryan Miller, proved to be the marquis match-up.

It match was a classic duel at 189. Covell jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a reversal early in the second period. Miller got an escape near the end of the second, leaving the score 2-1 in favor of Covell going into the third period. He held the position until about a minute left in the third period when Miller got another escape point. 

It looked like the match might end in regulation as a draw when Miller attempted a lift of Covell in the waning seconds only to find himself at the bottom. Covell converted the takedown for the win as the clock ran out.

​Titusville then bulldozed its way to a 63-6 win with several forfeits and quick pins, and only one loss to Seneca's Mike Spires.

More photos from the night.