It took some time, but Franklin women's basketball eventually found its rhythm on Saturday afternoon.

Led by double-doubles from seniors Kate Breeden and Jordan Coon, the Grizzlies led by double digits almost the entire game before a late run of 23 unanswered points put an exclamation points a lopsided 78-43 victory over Earlham at the Spurlock Center.

The victory moved Franklin (9-3, 4-1 HCAC) into a three-way tie atop the conference standings with Transylvania and Mount St. Joseph.

A Breeden layup and a three-point play by Molly Schulte kicked off an 11-0 burst that gave the Grizzlies a 19-5 advantage with 2:38 remaining in the opening quarter. Earlham never got closer than eight after that, but they remained within shouting distance at 46-34 late in the third period before baskets by Coon and Briley Munchel took the home team into the fourth up by 16.

From there, it was all Griz. Scoring the first 19 points of the fourth quarter, Franklin stretched its lead all the way out to 69-34 on a Coon 3-pointer with 5:21 to go before emptying the bench.

Coon finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds for the Grizzlies, while Breeden added 12 points and a game-high 14 boards. Franklin enjoyed a 53-35 rebounding advantage overall to make up for an uneven shooting night that saw the team go 0 for 13 from 3-point range over the first three quarters before Taylor Turk finally knocked one down in the final frame.

"Rebounding was a big focus of ours," Blanch said. "We had to make sure that we were crashing and we were also boxing out; those are two things that we've been struggling to do. We had a couple of people really step up to do that, and then once we put it all together, everyone doing that, we were able to then excel on the opposite side as well."

Schulte totaled 17 points and six assists and Munchel had six of the 15 steals for Franklin, which got 11 different players into the scoring column.

On Wednesday (Jan. 7), the Grizzlies will be back at home to face Manchester.