| It was a night of celebration at The Castle as the Knights clinched the Region 6 title, defeated their Route 8 rivals and honored their senior athletes. Jalen Wood scored 18 of his game-high 27 points in the first half to lead the Knights to a 72-63 victory over the visiting Oilers Friday night. Curry began the evening by taking the tip-off to the hoop and drew an early foul. He landed one from the line to start a nine-point run by the Knights. Oil City's Will McMahon got his team on the board with two points at 5:47. From there the teams mostly traded buckets before Wood closed the quarter with the first of two buzzer-beaters on the night. The second quarter started out as more of the same until Wood hit two of his six three-pointers in less than 20 seconds. Damarco Payne followed with two points of his own and Franklin seemed to be pulling away with a 33-19 lead. Sayyid Donald and Ethen Knox fought to keep the Oilers within streaking distance but two more shots from Wood and one from Damon Curry gave the Knights a solid 40-25 lead at the half. Oil City opened up the second with guns blazing as McMahon and Colin Liederbach hit back-to-back threes. Wood and Curry answered with three-point buckets of their own. Then Cole Buckley connected for two giving the Knights their largest lead of the night. Things started to look as if they were swinging the way of Oil City as Franklin closed out the third quarter with a series of fouls that sent Oilers to the line four times in a little over a minute of play. Wood closed out the stanza with his second buzzer-beater to put the Knights ahead by 15 once again. Oil City outscored Franklin 22-16 in the final quarter. But it was not enough to overcome consistent foul shooting by the Knights, who went 11 for 12 in the final minute of the game. The 72-63 win solidified Franklin as the undefeated Region 6 champion. Oil City had a balanced attack with six players scoring. Donald had a team-high 14, Jon Hargenrader had 12, Knox and Steven Heise had 10 each, Liederbach had 9 and McMahon had 8. Along with Wood's 27, Franklin scorers were Curry with 20, Buckley with 14 and Payne with 11. All eight of the team's seniors, including Darius Graham, Dreyden Payne, Gavin Eakin and Ethan Umbenhauer, saw action during their final regular season contest. They were honored prior to the start of the game. Senior cheerleaders Isabella Vroman and Jenna Rodgers were also recognized before the game. Senior girls basketball players Estella Adams, Jamie Blum, Jennifer Blum and Kirsten Hicks were honored during the halftime of the boys JV game. Their senior night festivities were originally scheduled to take place Monday, but the game was canceled when Meadville did not have enough players. |        |
Below are more photos from senior night.
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Many more photos at sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p538812844
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Many more photos at sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p538812844
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Many more photos at sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p538812844
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Many more photos at sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p538812844
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