The Franklin Panthers lost against the West Henderson Falcons back in January, and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. Franklin fell 61-51 to West Henderson. Franklin has not had much luck with West Henderson recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.
When it comes to explaining why Franklin lost, one person who can't be blamed is Max Mcclure. Despite the final result, he dropped a double-double on 26 points and 11 rebounds. That was a full 51% of Franklin's points, marking the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jacob Gibson, who scored four points along with two blocks.
Franklin struggled to work together and finished the game with only three assists. That's the fewest assists they've managed all season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead West Henderson to victory, but perhaps none more so than Truitt Manuel, who scored 14 points along with seven rebounds and four steals. Another player making a difference was Grant Putnam, who scored 13 points along with six rebounds.
Franklin's loss dropped their record down to 15-8. As for West Henderson, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won ten of their last 11 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 16-6 record this season.
Franklin does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for West Henderson, they will look to defend their home court on Tuesday against Tuscola at 8:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (West Henderson has three straight wins, Tuscola has six straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.