Friday evening's HCAC men's basketball tournament semifinal couldn't have started much better for Franklin. The remainder was a little tougher to stomach.

The Grizzlies got out to an early 15-point lead on top seed Transylvania's home court before the Pioneers surged back to claim an 86-75 victory.

Franklin's season ends with a 16-11 record.

"We did a great job of setting the tempo and tone of the game," Griz coach Chris Hamilton said. "They did an excellent job of ramping up their pressure, and ultimately made more of the plays necessary to create separation to come out on top."

Down 12-8 in the early going, the Grizzlies silenced the home crowd with a stunning 17-0 run to take control. Consecutive paint buckets by Dylan Beverly, Cooper Matthews and Nate Wilson got the blitz started, and Matthews finished it off by following a Justin Harrington 3-pointer with a steal and layup to make it 27-12 with 9:55 to go in the first half. Franklin held the Pioneers scoreless for a stretch of six minutes and 13 seconds.

Transylvania found its footing, though, and outscored the Griz 23-7 over the rest of the half to go into the break with a 35-34 edge. Layups by Harrington and Beverly briefly put the visitors back on top by three at the start of the second half, but a 13-1 Pioneer run flipped things back in favor of the host squad for good. Franklin trailed by as many as 18 points down the stretch.

The Grizzlies never got going from outside, shooting just 5 for 25 from 3-point range. Transy wasn't much better from deep (6 for 18), but it shot 52.8% overall from the floor (28 of 53) and made 20 of 22 second-half free throws to put the game on ice.

Harrington scored 19 points in a losing effort for the Grizzlies, while Matthews finished with 18 points, six rebounds and four steals. Beverly (13 points) and Jesse Faires (12) also scored in double figures.

The loss ends the Franklin careers of three graduating seniors — Connor McNabb, Avery Saunders and Will Spellman.

"The locker room is a better place because of their leadership and sacrifice for Franklin basketball," Hamilton said of the departing trio.