Franklin takes round one and leads region after defeating Oil City

1/31/2023

In an atmosphere of old-school rivalry, the battle for first in Region 6 commenced before a standing-room-only crowd. The Knights emerged victorious 67-51, ending an 11-game winning streak by the visiting Oilers.

The Oilers had 20 potential points thwarted by the outstretched hands of 6' 8" center Johnathan Leccia who recorded 10 blocks on the night. The Knights frustrated the Oilers with solid defense and crashing the boards.

The early minutes of the game were one-sided in favor of the home team. Franklin jumped to a 10-1 lead in the first four minutes of play, in part thanks to three of Leccia's blocks and a combination of field goals from Damon Curry, Cole Buckley and Leccia.

The Knights had a 12-point advantage nearing the final seconds of the quarter before Will McMahon bounced one in for the Oilers to end the first eight minutes at 19-9.

Franklin extended the lead to as much as 14 in the second quarter before Oil City started to pluck away at the deficit behind a strong foul shot effort.

With less than a minute left in the half Oil City's Cam VanWormer's second free throw circled the rim dramatically defying gravity at first before dropping through the net to cut Franklin's lead to eight at 30-22.

Oil City came out of the locker room in the second half ready to control the game for the first time behind a balanced effort from Sayyid Donald, Ethen Knox and Jake Hornbeck, who all combined for 17 points in the stanza. Buckley made sure that Franklin's shrinking lead did not turn into a shortfall, scoring 10 of his game-high 22 points to keep the surging Oilers at bay.

The Oilers were able to pull within two points of their Route 8 rivals following a technical foul call against Franklin and a bucket by Hornbeck. About halfway through the third stanza, Franklin called a timeout and regrouped. This seemed to work as they began pulling away again. Buckley took it to the hoop for two points with less than a second remaining and was rewarded with a plus 1 to help Franklin end the quarter ahead 46-39.

Oil City tried to make a run of it again in the fourth but the momentum was fully in Franklin's favor after Leccia recorded two slam dunks in a row and Jalen Wood quickly responding with a three pointer of his own after Oil City's VanWormer knocked one just seconds earlier. It was a classic moment of "anything you can do, I can do better."
From there, the Oilers never got closer than seven points. Franklin hit six foul shots down the stretch and ended the game with a 16-point advantage 67-51.

Leading the Knights were Buckley with 22 points, Wood with 18 (including five three-pointers) and Damon Curry with 15. Leccia recorded eight points, but his contributions on defense were immeasurable. Dreyden Payne and Ethan Owens had two points each.

The win puts Franklin in first place halfway through Region 6 play with a 5-0 record. It also extended their win streak to eight and improved their season record to 13-4. They head into the second half of the region schedule with a home game against Warren on Friday.

The Oilers fall to second place in the region at 4-1 and 14-3 overall on the year. Top scorers for Oil City were Donald with 15, Knox with 11 and Hornbeck with 9. VanWormer had seven points, Gavin Stephens had six, Will McMahon at two and Connor Highfield had one.

The junior varsity game set the stage for the evening's sports drama with a last second victory for the Knights. Oil City had a 39-38 lead with 16 seconds to play when Franklin stole the ball but missed a fast break bucket. The team regrouped with 7.2 seconds remaining and passed it to Gavin Eakin in the corner. Eakin stepped back over the the three point line and launched a nothing but net go ahead basket.

The shot gave the Knights a 41-39 lead with only few ticks on the clock remaining.

Oil City took a timeout but couldn't find a good shot resorting to a half court fling that flew short as the buzzer sounded.