NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – Playing the final game of three straight away from home, the Franklin men's basketball team had their sights set on a perfect road trip when they faced off with the Manchester Spartans on Saturday (Jan. 18) afternoon.

The Grizzlies (11-4, 7-1 HCAC) bolted out to an early lead, scoring the game's first 15 points. It proved to be an advantage the visitors would never relinquish, as the Franklin defense snuffed out any Spartan (5-10, 3-5 HCAC) comeback attempt to win, 69-60.

"I can't remember a better defensive effort in recent memory," Head coach Kerry Prather said afterwards. "That's as good as we played defensively start-to-finish against some tough matchups across the floor. To come out of a three-game road trip with three wins, you better bring it defensively. We wanted to be better at that end of the floor compared to Wednesday and that's exactly what we were able to do."

Franklin looked inside on the offensive end early, scoring the game's first 10 points in the paint with Payton Mills, Jordan Anderson and Matt Krause all finding lanes to the bucket. Kale Morris followed with back-to-back buckets, stretching the lead to 15-0 before the Spartans recorded their first points of the day at the 13:05 mark.

Manchester would slowly begin to chip away at the lead and after one Grizzly field goal over a four-minute stretch, the Spartans were back within 18-13 with nine minutes left in the half. But the Grizzlies put the clamps down defensively the rest of the half, taking a 30-24 lead into the break after holding Manchester to 24.1% (7-for-29) from the floor in the first 20 minutes.

Franklin went back inside to stretch the lead back to double-figures, starting the second half with an 8-2 run with all their points coming in the paint. The Grizzlies' lead stayed in double figures until a 10-4 Spartan run cut the Grizzlies' lead to 55-51 with five minutes to play.

But Franklin shook off the Spartans' rally and put the game out of reach in the final three minutes. Leading by five, the Grizzlies got back-to-back jumpers from Anderson and Borden Kennedy and a dagger three from Krause that stretched the lead back to double figures with a little more than a minute left in the game.

Morris poured in a game-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds. Mills picked up his fifth career double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds while Kennedy and Anderson joined their teammates in double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Franklin shot 38.6% (22-for-57) from the floor, going 5-for-13 from three and 20-for-26 at the free throw line. Defensively, the Grizzlies stymied the Spartans to the tune of 35.5% (22-for-62) shooting with the hosts going 5-for-24 from three.

Rebounds were 43-36 in the Grizzlies' favor while Franklin forced 19 Manchester turnover that turned into 15 points at the other end.

Franklin returns to the Spurlock Center on Wednesday (Jan. 22) night, taking on Rose-Hulman in search of their ninth win in a row. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.