Unable to hold onto early leads in its previous games, Franklin women's basketball was able to keep the one it built on Saturday afternoon.
The Grizzlies used strong first and third quarters to go up by as many as 18 points, then held off a late Hiram charge to earn a 68-59 victory in the consolation game of the Briton Battle at Albion.
Franklin (1-3) got nine first-quarter points from sophomore
Sophia Saucerman while building a 17-7 lead, then countered a Hiram surge with a couple of baskets from freshman
Makayla Triplett late in the half, taking a 35-27 edge into the locker room.
The margin got whittled to four early in the third quarter before a
Molly Schulte 3-pointer and consecutive Saucerman buckets sparked a 9-0 run that made it 44-31 at the 6:57 mark of the period. Schulte and sophomore
Aly Peters then each scored four points during a 10-2 spurt that upped the Griz advantage to 54-36 later in the third.
Hiram chipped away in the fourth quarter to get as close as seven with 1:38 to go, but Franklin got late baskets from Saucerman and
Cameryn Ridderikhoff to help put the game on ice.
Schulte paced the Grizzlies with 21 points and five assists. Saucerman added 15 points, while Ridderikhoff contributed eight points and a team-high seven rebounds. Franklin forced 22 turnovers and limited Hiram to 19 of 53 shooting from the floor (35.8%). After giving up 14 3-pointers in Friday's loss to John Carroll, the Griz allowed just three Hiram makes from long range.
Franklin's five-game slate of road games to start the season ends this coming Wednesday evening (Nov. 18, 7 p.m.) with a trip to Asbury.
