Boys Basketball: Strong Second Half Leads Kenwood Past Franklin

For Kenwood, its game at Franklin was a tale of two halves.

In the first half, the host Indians controlled the tempo, walking the ball up the court and sucking the energy out of the visiting Bluebirds with their 3-2 zone defense to take a 21-20 lead heading into the break. 

The second half proved to be the polar opposite as Kenwood feverishly pushed the ball up court off every rebound or turnover and forced Franklin to play out of its desired style, running and gunning the Indians for the final 16 minutes en route to a 62-51 victory.  

Kenwood (10-6) outscored the Indians 42-30 in the final two quarters, fueling its offensive onslaught with bucket after bucket in transition.

“We got caught up playing Kenwood’s style,” said Franklin coach Kieran O’Connell, whose squad has now dropped three in a row after winning three straight.

“They are quick and athletic, they get up and down in transition and they cause a lot of helter-skelter situations, and that’s one thing we are not good at. When they got up four, five points we felt like we had to get it back in one possession and that’s not the case.”

Senior Akeem Echols, who netted 11 of his team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter, led Kenwood. Senior forward Davonte Alston chipped in with 14 for the Bluebirds.

Franklin (5-13) played well to battle back from a shooting lull midway through the third quarter, during which it went more than four minutes without a field goal.

However, the Indians erased an eight-point deficit early in the fourth quarter with a 13-4 spurt that included 11 straight points from junior Devin Hebron to take a 42-41 lead with less than five minutes to play — the Indians' first advantage since early on in the third quarter.

But, Kenwood responded right away with an Alston free throw on the other end that sparked a run of 11 points unanswered by the Bluebirds, who jumped out to a 10-point advantage with around three minutes to play. They never looked back.

“We came out kind of flat after halftime, we felt we had them,” Franklin point guard Greg Ramsey said.  “But after that we didn’t know what happened, the defense shut down, we didn’t get back on transition defense — we've got to do a better job of calling out our men on the way back on defense and do a better job of attacking on offense.”

In addition to Hebron — who scored all of his game-high 17 points in the second half — the Indians received contributions from Joe Walsh, who tallied 14 to go along with five rebounds. But the senior forwards’ effectiveness was limited by foul trouble coupled with 6'6" forward Johnathan Richardson, who clogged the lane all evening for Kenwood.

Franklin’s supporting cast of senior Treyvon Roberts and sophomores Artice Jackson and Marquis Ellis — who has come on strong in recent weeks — combined for just 12 points on the game.

Defensively, O’Connell emphasized the need to box out and not let up so many second-chance opportunities.  

“It comes down to the little things we’ve been stressing as a staff all year,” O’Connell said. “They are just not getting it done.”

Kenwood returns home to take on Dulaney at 7 p.m. tonight.