Boys Basketball: Catonsville Turns Up the Heat on Franklin, 61-51

Catonsville forward Deniko Carter stressed that getting in an opponent's face and getting under their skin was part of his team's mentality. Wednesday night against Franklin, that's exactly what they did.

The Comets utilized an intense full court press – one which fueled a 16-0 run to end the third quarter – to force turnovers and aggravate the visiting Indians who could never settle into their half-court offense, falling 61-51.

Behind as many as 12 points in the first half, Franklin (1-3) came out strong in the third quarter, closing the deficit to 29-26 before Catonsville went on their run.

However, before the Indians could catch their breath, the home team had reeled off 16 straight points, punctuated by back-to-back Carter dunks in transition – both coming off turnovers near midcourt.

"We tried to change it up as far as, they were doing a pretty good job against our man-to-man," Catonsville coach Brian Barber said. "We wanted to switch it up and put in our press to see how they'd handle some additional pressure and it worked out for us."

Catonsville's unrelenting pressure – on and off the ball – sped up Franklin's tempo throughout the game and played right into the Comets' hands.  

It also left Franklin head coach Kieran O'Connell scratching his head at game's end.

"We're having a lot of trouble handling press break right now with our guard play. The amount of turnovers – we're just not valuing the ball right now," O'Connell said. "We're trying different things, different rotations. There's no set rotation, no consistency on the floor with the [starting] players from the bench on down. Turnovers are really killing us right now.

The new guys just are not gelling right now as a team. As a coach I got to go back and reevaluate what's going on and what we need to do figure out how to get this team back on track."

Also to Franklin's disadvantage was the Comets' dominance under the boards, limiting the Indians' second chance shot opportunities while producing several of their own.

"Everybody crashed the boards and got the rebounds.  I think we did an excellent job crashing the boards," Carter said.

The 6'3 junior tallied 18 points to lead the team. Fellow junior, 6'2 forward Ceadrick Arca chipped in with 13.

Catonsville's length proved to be extremely valuable, as they corralled several 50-50 balls and earned numerous trips to the foul line.

Although the Comets (3-2) only hit 55% of their free throws, they went to the charity stripe 29 times.   

Despite being outscored 20-5 in the third quarter, Franklin did their best to slice into a 19 point margin to open the fourth, closing the deficit to eight points on three occasions before Catonsville finally pulled away.

The Indians were kept in the game by a strong effort from junior guard Devin Hebron, who posted a game high 25 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter. Senior forward Joe Walsh added 14 points of his own.  

Still, O'Connell wants more out of his team as a whole.

"We're struggling big time. We got a couple players that aren't stepping up right now ," said O'Connell, still without starting point guard Mark Venable. "We may have to start looking at some of the younger guys." 

Franklin will look to rebound when they return home to face off against John Carroll, Saturday at 1 p.m.

Catonsville hits the road to take on Overlea Monday night at 6:30.