Sports

BB&T: West Lincoln pounds Madison Co., S. Point tops Lady Rebels

Dec.28, 2001 - CHERRYVILLE — Zach Franklin did not start the game for West Lincoln. But he was there when the Rebels needed him most in a 56-47 win over Madison County Thursday in the opening round of the BB & T Holiday Classic.

A backup point guard, Franklin came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points as the Rebels (4-5) advanced to tonight's semifinal at 8:30 against host Cherryville.

"He had a heck of a game," West Lincoln coach Jason Kingery said of Franklin. "His ball handling and foul shooting were there when it counted. He was clutch for us tonight."

Franklin hit six consecutive free throws down the stretch to help the Rebels break away from a 38-38 tie midway through the fourth quarter. He also made a layup off a drive to put West ahead 48-41 with under two minutes to play.

Jeremy Parker added 16 points for the Rebels, 13 of those coming in the first half as West Lincoln opened a 25-12 lead.

The Rebels were unable to break the game open in the second half as winless Madison chipped away at the lead and pulled into a tie at 38 with 5:01 left in the fourth quarter.

But Franklin's free-throwing shooting and ball handling helped the Rebels survive the Madison run.

Kingery blamed his team's sluggishness in the second half on the Christmas break.

"I gave them four days off over Christmas, and we got fatigued," he said. "They (Madison) got a streak in them. But we did not tighten up enough to lose the ball game."

Parker sank three 3-pointers in the first half to key West Lincoln's fast start. The Rebels were up 12-4 after one quarter  and stretched the margin to 13 at the break.

With four wins, the Rebels have already bettered last year's victory total of three. They will attempt to reach the .500 mark tonight against a team they have split with already this year.

"It should be a good one," Kingery said of the matchup with the Ironmen. "I hope our fans can get down here. We are going to come at them hard."

Girls

South Point 55, West Lincoln 51

A sluggish start may have cost the Rebels a spot in tonight's semifinal bracket against Cherryville.

West Lincoln fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, rallied to twice tie the game in the fourth quarter, but did not have enough left at the end to overtake the Red Raiders.

"We were not ready to play early," West Lincoln coach Allen Hoyle said. "We were nonchalant about a lot of stuff. Obviously, we did a better job in the second half."

Once again, Hoyle saw his club battle back from a big deficit only to fall short.

"It's been three or four games now where we got in a hole and come back. But we have not had quite enough to get it over the hump," he said.

West Lincoln (2-7) recovered from the awful start to trail by 11, 25-14, at the break. However, South Point twice extended the lead to 15 in the third quarter, the last time at 33-18.

That's when Kisha Morrison gave West Lincoln a spark off the bench with some hot shooting. Morrison made all four of her field goal attempts in the third quarter to help cut the deficit to single digits, 40-32, by quarter's end.

Morrison continued to hit in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, sinking a pair of 3-pointers to trim the lead to two. West Lincoln then tied the game at 44-44 and knotted the score again at 47 on two Kaylon Carpenter free throws with 2:34 left.

South Point's Elsie Sadler broke the tie with a pair of foul shots, and the Raiders went on to build a five-point edge by converting at the line out of their delay game.

West Lincoln got as close as 53-51, but Heather Ulep got a layup off a long pass with 10 seconds left to seal the win.

Whitney Robinson, South Point's career scoring leader, had a game-high 16 points despit an off-shooting night. Morrison led West Lincoln with 15 points, all in the second half, and Carpenter hit double figures with 11.

West Lincoln plays Madison County today at 1 p.m. in the consolation bracket. South Point (4-4) plays Cherryville tonight at 7 in the semifinals.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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