Even when the momentum was going away from it on Friday night, the Franklin men's basketball team never gave in to doubt. And in a game of runs, it was the Grizzlies who got the last words in.

Justin Harrington scored 26 points to lead four players in double figures, and Franklin used an aggressive defensive effort down the stretch to score 13 unanswered points and finish off an 85-74 home victory over Olivet in the season opener.

"We kept saying all game, 'We're either going to win, or we're going to run out of time,'" Griz head coach Chris Hamilton said. "We're not having a losing mindset, we're not having an idea that we're going to come up short — so at the under-eight (minute media timeout), we talked about staying even more solid, just do your job. I think that's what everybody did defensively; we had a lot of guys step up individually, and I think when you watch the film, when you look at this team, it was a team effort defensively that ended up getting the 26 points from turnovers. Twenty-six points off of turnovers is insane, so great job by everybody."

Down 9-5 in the early going against a Comets team that had three players between 6-foot-7 and 6-10 in their rotation, the Grizzlies reeled off the next seven points and got out as far in front as 20-11 on a Dylan Beverly 3-pointer. Olivet responded and wound up reclaiming the lead, 42-39, going into the half.

Two more Beverly 3s briefly put Franklin back up, 47-46, early in the second half, but the Comets again countered and wound up taking their biggest lead of the game, 65-56, with 10:13 remaining.

Still down by six with under seven minutes left, the Grizzlies made their move. 

Harrington and Zaryen Moore hit 3s to cut it to 72-70, and Rohan Pearson's corner trey with 3:58 on the clock put the home team in front to stay at 73-72. Two free throws each by Beverly and Avery Saunders stretched the edge to five before a LeBron Bennie-Powell 3 capped the back-breaking 13-0 run.

Overall, Franklin outscored Olivet 18-2 over the last six minutes.

Harrington had the hottest hand offensively (and also collected three steals), but Bennie-Powell and Saunders each contributed 17 points while Beverly added 13 points and three blocked shots. The Grizzlies shot 13 for 30 overall from long range, going 8 of 16 in the second half.

There won't be much time to savor the victory, however — Hope comes to town Saturday night for a 7:30 p.m. showdown.

"We'll be out here supporting the football team," Hamilton said after the win, "and hopefully we get a great crowd tomorrow night. We need everybody back in the Spurlock tomorrow night."