PITSBURG – Franklin Monroe and Twin Valley South kicked off their boys basketball season in a WOAC match-up and both teams had lots of questions about their teams. It would be a highly competitive game giving each team some answers to those questions. In a game that could have gone either way Franklin Monroe would make a few more winning plays late to earn a 59-56 victory.
The Jets were coming off 21-5 record, 10-1 in the WOAC and a District Championship last season, and graduated five seniors from that team: EB Fall (13.5 pt), Eric Brenner (14.7 pt), Ty Riffle, Trey Wilson and Tysyn Miller taking with them almost 40 points per game.
Franklin Monroe did have a few key pieces return from that team this year starting with Seniors Lucas Brenner (7.3 pt ) Ben Denlinger (5 pt), and junior Blake Riffle (8.4 pt) and all three would play a big role in the Jets win and help take up some of the scoring needed to make up from the previous season.
On the flip side, Twin Valley South would have its third coach in three years, with the current girls varsity coach, Kerry Crouch, serving double duty, coaching the boys varsity team this year.
The Panthers finished 2024-25 with a 5-18 overall record and 3-8 in the WOAC and graduated seven seniors on that team.
Returning for South was their leading scorer junior Trent Ray (13.6 pt) and senior guard Aiden White (9.7 pt) so the Panthers also were looking to find out who will step up on the offensive side of the ball
Defensively the Panthers have plenty of size with 5 players 6’2” or taller and that length would be a concern for FM coach Troy Myers.
“I honestly thought coming into the game that it would be a struggle for us because of their size. They have a lot of kids who haven’t played on the basketball floor in a varsity game, and neither do we. But size in high school basketball does make a difference, especially in small schools,” coach Myers stated.
That size would help Twin Valley South as they jumped on top of Franklin Monroe 12-8 in the first quarter a score that could have been higher had it not been for a number of missed lay-ups by the Panthers.
They would get five points from Trent Ray, three from 6’2” junior forward Parker Howard and two each from Levi Ritchie and 6’3” senior forward Laiden Carver.
Franklin Monroe also missed shots in the opening frame but got a triple and two free throws from Lucas Brenner, a lay-up from Blake Riffle and a free throw from junior forward Reed Brumbaugh.
It would go back and forth in the second quarter with the Jets picking up some scoring from new faces with junior guard Braden Gilbert knocking down a triple and sophomore Grady Myers adding a fielder to go along with another four points from Brenner, three free throws from Blake Riffle and three points from Ben Denlinger to give FM a 23-22 lead at the break.
South points came on four points from Aiden White layups, two from Ray and Carver, then one point each from 6’2” junior forward Parker Howard and 6’5” junior forward Lucas Barlow.
In the third quarters Ray would step-up for South going for seven points and was matched by teammate Ritchie for an 18-point quarter.
Franklin Monroe kept the scoring pace with 17-points in the third period led by Blake Riffle’s six points, Brenner’s five and another triple from Gilbert for a 40-40 tie heading into the final stanza.
There were a number of lead changes throughout the contest and neither team led in the game by more than four points.
Franklin Monroe took back the lead 45-44 on the third triple of the game by Gilbert at 6:18, then extended it on a free throw and a lay-up by Brenner to go up 48-44 at 5:07.
South responded with a five-point run to jump back in front 49-48 only to see Brenner connect on his second triple of the game to regain the lead 51-49 for the Jets.
Ritchie tied the game back up and then a free throw by Howard flipped the score 52-51 South.
One thing was becoming clear in the game and that is whenever Franklin Monroe needed a tough bucket it was Lucas Brenner stepping forward. The senior guard was fouled hard going to the rim and made two free throws with a minute to go for a 53-52 lead.
Brenner scored 23 points in the game to lead all scorers with nine in the 4th quarter.
South was unable to respond, fouled sophomore guard Braxtyn Cool who sank one of two free throws to go up 54-52 with 30 seconds to play.
Cool found himself back at the line with 19 seconds left, again going one for two keeping the lead at two, 55-53.
South failed to score and the Panthers fouled senior Ben Denlinger who drained the two throws to push the lead to 57-53.
Trent Ray, South’s leading scorer with 17 rose up and fired in a long range three ball to close the gap to 57-56 with 8 seconds to play.
The Panthers had to foul and sent Gilbert to the line with 3 seconds to play. He connected on both for a Jets.
The team that was a combined 9-for-12 in the 4th period and 22 of 32 for the game.
South had one last shot from just over half-court, but it was too long and Franklin Monroe hung on 59-56 for their season opening win.
After the game Troy Myers talked about his team’s effort and ability to make plays down the stretch as keys to the win.
“I told the guys if we didn’t win the rebounding war, we weren’t in the game. And down the stretch, we had some monumental rebounds. We had one by our smallest kid on the floor on the defensive end, and then we had an extra effort play down here by Denlinger on the free throw. Both got us a possession, and I thought our guys really locked in and understood the assignment on the glass, and we had some gutsy efforts there at the end,” Myers would say.
“I didn’t thing we would score 59 points on opening night. I thought we would struggle to score, and we did at times. The first half was pretty ugly, but we shot a lot of free throws, got to the rim, put pressure on the rim, and gave ourselves a chance to shoot a lot of free throws. So, I’m really proud of the guys’ effort and in the second half understanding what it was going to take to win and come up with a few stops that we had to have,” Myers added.
On the other side Twin Valley South coach Kerry Crouch was pleased with his team’s effort as well and knows they were just play or two away from getting a win.
“I think we shot 43% from the field, and we probably missed 10 easy bunnies, right? So, if we make a few of those baskets. It’s a different ball game,” Crouch stated.
Crouch, much like Myers is trying to feel out where he is as a team and trying not to complicate things too much initially and knows they have things to work on.
“Starting off in the beginning of the year we’re talking about just playing basketball and not worrying about running a lot of sets, we want the kids go out there and not think about too many things and just play basketball,” Crouch explained.
“We’ve got kids out there that have some experience, other who haven’t played in a while and some new with little experience. So, I feel like we’re at different tiers, but I like what we have, and our length is going to help us,” Crouch added.
“I think people will have to take notice that we’re a pretty good basketball team. We’ll go back to practice on Sunday and obviously work on defense, help side defense, playing without following, which I yelled the whole game. We had a lot of kids in foul trouble and had to go deeper in the bench. But I think those kids stepped up. I believe we’re just a steppingstone away from figuring it out,” Crouch concluded.
South was led by Trent Ray with 17 points, Levi Rithchie 14 and Parker Howard 10. They will back in action on Monday traveling to Middletown Christian.
Franklin Monroe was led by Lucas Brenner with 23 points, Blake Riffle had 12, and Braden Gilbert with 11. The Jets are back in action at Calvary Christian Saturday.
Box Scores
Score by Quarters
TVS … 12 … 10 … 18 … 16 – 56
FM …. 08 … 15 … 17 … 19 – 59
Team Scoring
Twin Valley South – (0-1, 0-1 WOAC)
P. Howard 0-3-4/8 – 10, A. White 0-2-0/0 – 4, L Ritchie 2-3-2/2 – 14, L. Carter 0-3-0/0 – 6, L. Barlow 0-2-1/2 – 5, T. Ray 1-6-2/4 – 17, Totals 3-19-9/16 – 56
Franklin Monroe – (1-0, 1-0 WOAC)
L.Brenner 2-5-7/10 -23, B. Cool 0-0-2/4 -2, R. Brumbaugh 0-1-1/2 -3, B. Gilbert 0-3-2/2-11, B Riffle 0-3-6/8 -12, B. Denlinger 0-1-4/6 -6, G Myers 0-1-0/0 -2, Totals 5-11-22/32 -59
