The Franklin Sabers will wrap up 2023 with a road trip to face off against the Catholic Memorial Crusaders at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Franklin focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 20 on Thursday.
Franklin unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak. They took a 54-46 hit to the loss column at the hands of Grafton. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Franklin in their matchups with Grafton: they've now lost three in a row.
Franklin's defeat came about despite a quality game from Rachael Jepsen, who scored 16 points along with six rebounds and five steals. Those 16 points set a new season-high mark for her. The team also got some help courtesy of Lauren Capstran, who scored 14 points.
Catholic Memorial has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five matchups by 29 points or more this season. They blew past Mukwonago 73-40 at home. Given Catholic Memorial's advantage in MaxPreps' Wisconsin basketball rankings (they are ranked ninth, while Mukwonago is ranked 110th), the result last Tuesday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Franklin's loss dropped their record down to 6-4. As for Catholic Memorial, their win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-0.
Franklin was able to grind out a solid victory over Catholic Memorial when the teams last played back in December of 2022, winning 63-52. The rematch might be a little tougher for Franklin since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
