Prep Basketball: Franklin Boys Playing Better Than Their Record

At a quick glance, Franklin boys basketball appears to be having a mediocre year. With two sets of back-to-back losses sandwiched around one four-game winning streak, the Indians may seem average on the surface.

But don’t say that to head coach Kieran O’Connell. He sees a team coming together as a unit that’s clearly on the rise. In fact, talking to O’Connell you’d think his team was playing well above its .500 record in the standings—and that’s probably because they easily could be.

Aside from Franklin’s blowout defeat at the hands of Owings Mills early on in the season, the Indians have held second half leads in all three of their other losses, falling in those games by just a combined 19 points.

“The biggest thing is being able to finish out games. I’d say were playing 24 to 28 minutes of good basketball,” O’Connell said.

“I feel like the guys, when they get a lead, they pull back a little bit and stop being as aggressive. Trying to put teams away is what it probably comes down to and that’s a hard thing to find when you have so many new kids that haven’t been relied on to do that.”

However, while the key players in his rotation continue to become comfortable playing with one another, they have all developed a level of unselfishness that O’Connell says was greatly lacking from last year’s squad, which struggled on offense and suffered several blowout losses.

As opposed to one player doing a majority of the scoring, the Indians routinely boast around four different players tallying double digit point totals.

“One thing is the sharing of the ball. There’s a lot more balance,” O’Connell said. “It’s not one guy shooting the ball and four guys standing around. There’s no question, we’re playing completely different compared to last year.”  

While the Indians have consistently featured a zone defense to slow down opposing offenses, they’ve taken advantage of every opportunity to speed up the game when on the attack, regularly looking to score in transition with athletic guards Marquis Ellis, Reggie Ellis and Isaiah Lamb. Franklin has also benefited from offensive contributions from swingman Kevin Boles and forward Eric Proper.

O’Connell especially credited Reggie Ellis for assuming the reins at point guard and exerting maximum effort to slow down the opposition’s lead ball handler on defense.

The Indians truly realized Ellis’ value Wednesday night against Perry Hall. Clinging to a one point lead with three minutes to play, the point guard left with an injury and the Gators capitalized with a 7-0 run to steal the win.

“Finding a way to close it out, that’s the part that’s one of the toughest things to do as a coach,” O’Connell said. “It’s not like it’s an X’s and O’s thing. It’s one of the mental aspects of our team.”