Lady Cats claw way into second round

The Franklin County Lady Wildcats earned their first sectional victory since 2016 on Wednesday evening by defeating Batesville 51-39. The Lady Cats took an early lead after shutting down the Lady Bulldogs offense, holding them to just four first quarter points. Batesville played even with FC in the second period, but in the third quarter the Lady Cats got their three-point game working, allowing them to put it in cruise control for the final frame and earn win number 16 on the season for coach Kyle VanMeter.

The Lady Cats started off the game getting the ball inside to Nicole Mears who put up six of FC’s 13-points in the quarter. Kassidy Schell chipped in with four and FC was up 13-4 after the first frame. The Lady Dogs got a three-point basket from Emma Weiler and a free throw from Sophie Gesell. The second period began with Lydia Haskamp getting two baskets for BHS, Schell hit two free throws for FC, then Gesell got an old fashioned three-point play bringing Batesville within four-points of the Lady Cats. Macy Crain scored for FC then Weiler hit her second deep ball in the game, and it was 17-14 in favor of FC. Cora Deputy added a point from the charity stripe and FC finished off the half with Schell and Mears scoring. With 30 seconds to go Bailey Kaiser hit a three-pointer and FC took a 24-15 lead into the locker room at the half.
Franklin County increased their lead in the third period with Schell knocking down a deep ball and Crain scoring inside. Alyson Peters and Weiler scored for the Lady Dogs to bring the game back to within 10-points midway through the frame. Then another FC 5-0 run gave them a 14-point cushion. Batesville scored five more points in the quarter, but the Lady Cats finished the final minute on another 5-0 run with Josie Rolfes hitting a three, and Schell going two-for-two from the line. Franklin County led going into the final quarter 41-25. Batesville finished the game with their highest scoring quarter (14) in the contest. Gesell started them off with the first four-points for BHS, and Claire Saner added three-points, but the Lady Cats sealed the victory from the free throw line. FC hit 8 of their 12 foul shot attempts taken over the final four minutes of the game. The 12-point victory for FC has them moving to the next round where they will play at 7:30pm on Friday. The Lady Wildcats will face last year’s sectional champs, the Rushville Lady Lions for a chance to play for the sectional championship. For the Lady Bulldogs, they finished the season with a winning record at 12-11, their first since 2017-18 when they finished 13-12.

            1          2          3          4          F

FCHS   13        11        17        10        51

BHS     4          11        10        14        39

Unofficial Scoring
Franklin County- Schell 20, Rofles 11, Mears 9, Crain 8, Kaiser 3
Batesville- Gesell 10, Weiler 9, Haskamp 6, Peters 6, Saner 5, Marlee Obermeyer 2, Deputy 1