BEDFORD — The heavy favorite in its sectional and a favorable regional draw left Franklin with a clear path to the Class 4A semistate. But after narrowly surviving an upset bid by Whiteland in the sectional final, a stunner in Saturday’s Class 4A regional vs. Evansville North didn’t seem entirely implausible.
It took all of about three minutes or so for the Grizzly Cubs to assuage any concerns.
Lauren Klem and Emma Sappenfield fired the opening salvo with a pair of 3-pointers and the lead was 17-1 by the time North registered its first field goal. Franklin forced 16 turnovers, unofficially, in the first half while committing just one itself, and its lead ballooned to as many as 30 in the second quarter.
Final score: 69-30.
After weathering a close call last weekend, Franklin (24-3) used Saturday’s trip to Bedford to reaffirm its status among the best in 4A.
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“Whether we won or lost, we just wanted to play better,” coach Mike Armstrong said. “If we’re going to get beat, let’s get beat playing well and playing hard. If we do those two things, we can live with the result.”