Franklin Tech's Defense Handles Hornets

TURNERS FALLS, Mass. -- The Franklin Tech girls basketball team Thursday kept the pressure turned up on McCann Tech from start to finish of a 43-29 win in the first round of the Eagles Holiday Classic.

 

Liliana Inman scored 10 points, and the hosts generated 28 turnovers from their press in advancing to Friday's championship game against Mount Greylock, a winner over St. Mary's earlier on Thursday.

 

Those same Mounties also made life difficult for the Hornets for 94 feet in their meeting at Tuesday's Bucky Bullett Jamboree.

 

McCann Tech coach Justin Kratz said his team still has some work to do in that area, but there are positives to take away from Thursday's season opener.

 

"We've still got to do a better job of breaking the press," Kratz said. "But we did a better job tonight than we did Tuesday night.

 

"We've only had seven practices. I love the fact that there were very few moments tonight when heads were down, heads were hanging in frustration. We didn't have any of that. They just kept playing hard. So that's what I want."

 

For most of the night, it was a one- or two-possession game against an Eagles squad that had advantages in size, experience (10 upperclassmen to McCann Tech's five) and numbers (15 players to nine Hornets dressed).

 

It was a 6-6 game after a first quarter in which the two defenses combined to force 22 turnovers).

 

And it was a six-point lead for Franklin Tech at half-time.

 

McCann Tech's Faith Brazeau (12 points, seven rebounds) made the first basket of the second half and converted a pair of free throws at the 4 minute, 50 second mark of the third quarter to get her team within three at 17-14.

 

"Faith's a worker out there," Kratz said. "She's very athletic. She knows the game really well. She's definitely a big part of our offense and our defense, and we look forward to seeing good things from her all season."

 

But the Eagles closed the quarter on an 11-3 run -- four points from Inman and four from Brayleigh Burgh (six points, five rebounds).

 

"[Inman] had a couple of buckets there in that third quarter that really kind of helped them pull away from us, and we just didn't really have much to throw at her to match her size," Kratz said.

 

One of the Hornets' bigger players, senior Amaya Todd, missed Thursday's game due to illness.

 

Franklin Tech opened up an 11-point lead at the end of the third quarter and pushed the margin to 15 points three minutes into the fourth.

 

But McCann Tech answered with its best run of the night.

 

First, Brazeau put back an offensive rebound. Then, after a steal by Ava Kratz, Brazeau scored again to make it 34-23. A steal by Aidan Champney led to a bucket by Madison Rougeau to make it a single-digit margin with just less than three minutes to play.

 

Hannah Gilbert settled things down for the Eagles with a jumper from the right wing at the 2:30 mark, and Franklin Tech got a couple more steals from its press down the stretch to keep the Hornets at arm's length.

 

McCann Tech (0-1) will look for its first win of the season on Friday when it returns to Franklin Tech to face St. Mary's of Westfield in the consolation round.

 

Photos from this game here.