PITSBURG – The Franklin Monroe girls basketball team prevailed in a thrilling 48-44 overtime victory over Dayton Christian who braved the one-hour trip north on a frigid cold night in Darke County.
The Lady Warriors came into the game with just two wins and was determined to make the trip worth it vs the 3-10 Lady Jets.
Franklin Monroe would jump in front and hold a 16-10 first quarter lead and thing were looking good.
Kyra Barnes had 5 points, Presly Cox 4, Caydance Nichols 3 and Ava Figel 2 in the first frame.
But it was as if the Hangar door was left open and the cold air from the night rushed in as the Jets would score just four points in the 2nd quarter a fielder from Barnes and Cox.
They would have an opportunity to add two free throws with no time on the clock at the break … but those didn’t fall either, so FM found themselves in a game at the break holding a 20-19 lead.
Dayton Christian must have had a warm locker-room because they came out smoking to start the 3rd quarter scoring 9 unanswered points raining including 2 triples for a 28-20 lead giving pause to FM coach Tim Barga to talk about it.
Out of the timeout the Jets on a set play found Cox open inside on a cross screen and she would finish to break the scoring drought but trailed 28-22 at the 5:35 mark.
The Warriors were still feeling it, hit a trey pushing the lead to 36-24 the largest of the game, 12-points at the 3:41 mark.
Coach Barga had seen enough.
“They went off making their threes, I’ve watched film, and they didn’t make any … but when they start falling the team builds confidence and suddenly everything was going in. It was hard to sit back in a zone when you know they’re going to keep shooting,” Barga stated.
Franklin Monroe switched to a man-to-man, the ball pressure and in your face defense took away shots they were getting … but the 17-point – 3rd quarter did damage.
To the Lady Jets credit, they battled back closing the gap to 38-31 and had another opportunity to put points on the board with no time on clock at the end of the 3rd quarter but again came away empty at the line.
The scoring pace slowed in the 4th quarter as Cox added 4 points in the paint to narrow the gap to 38-35. The Jets defense went from allowing 17 third quarter points to clamping down and giving up just 2 points in fourth.
With the Warriors holding a 40-37 lead jr. Ava Figel connected on a big three-point shot in the corner tying the game at 40 and the game would head to overtime.
“Our to man-to-man defense was really good and we stopped them in that 4th quarter to give ourselves a chance,” Coach Barga commented.
In the overtime period the Jets had opportunities to draw first blood, but shots didn’t fall, and Dayton Christian made the first bucket to take the lead and followed it up with on a fast break pass up the floor beating FM back for a lay-up to go up 44-40 with 1:52 to play in OT.
“When they beat us down the floor for the lay-up, which should have never happened I thought to myself it might just be over,” Barga would say after the game.
Franklin Monroe who lost several games this year late, a one-point loss to Emmanuel Christian, two-point loss to Bradford and three-point loss to Preble Shawnee was determined not to let that happen again.
Figel, the hero sending the game into overtime, drained her second three-pointer from the opposite corner narrowing the gap to 44-43.
Cadance Nichols redeemed herself after missing free throws earlier by knocking down two tosses to grab the lead 45-44.
The defense then held off Dayton Christian and made enough free throws to win the game 48-44 for an exciting win for the lady Jets.
“It was great to see the girls keep their heads up when things got tough and battle through some adversity and a positive thing to see us come back for 12 points. I tell our kids, you know, whenever you give 100% on the defensive end, the offense is going to come, and it did,” Barga explaine
“Foul shots will win or lose you games. We missed a lot of foul shots and was fortunate enough to get the into overtime and make them towards the end,” Barga concluded.
Presly Cox led the Jets with 16 points, Kyra Barnes who had several good drives to the basket had 14, Cadance Nichols 10 and Ava Figel 8 in the win.
Franklin Monroe improved to 4-10 overall, they are 1-7 in WOAC and will host Tri-Village on Thursday in a league game.
