Sports
King Philip Girls Basketball Takes Tough Loss Against Franklin
Panthers do everything right and walk away with a 73-28 win.
For the third time in as many games, King Philip Coach Jim Leonard’s team went to the foul line less than five times.
This time in Franklin, the Warriors found their way to the charity stripe once, and that came on an outside foul early in the second quarter.
The Panthers, behind some aggressive inside rebounding and good outside shooting, took to task the visiting Warriors 73-28 in a Hockomock League battle at the Woodrow Abbott Field House. Although the Panthers had themselves a fantastic game from start to finish, King Philip was also to blame at the lopsided loss, by not attacking the basket.
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“We worked at this (taking the ball to the hoop) in practice this week,” Coach Leonard said. “Obviously it didn’t translate to the game.”
In the early goings, the Warriors looked as though they were going to have issues with the much taller Franklin squad, but time and time again King Philip was able to get that second and third shot.
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Unfortunately, they were unable to convert and, quarter by quarter, saw the home team improve upon its lead. Following the first quarter, the Panthers were up 14-9, but that had increased to 34-12 by the half.
Franklin was lead by senior center Sam Irvine, who had 12 of her game-high 18 in the first half. Ellie Getchell knocked down 7 of her 13 in the first half.
King Philip was paced by Lauren Trudeau’s 12 points. Trudeau was the only Warrior in double figures, while Katie Brennan hit for 5 and Kaitlin Durden and Ellen Wagner added four points each in the loss.
“This is a tough gym to shoot in. You’re not going to win here by taking outside shots,” the KP coach said. “Until we commit to drive inside, it’s going to be tough to win. It comes with a willingness to be aggressive.”
King Philip is accustomed to being a small team that takes the perimeter shot, and needs to learn to take the ball into the paint and make teams work. If the Warriors can not commit to doing that, teams will just sit back and let them shoot as much as they want from the outside.
The Warriors are back in action tonight when they travel to Mansfield in another Hockomock League tilt.