FC maintains top seed with two tourney wins

Franklin County’s varsity girls basketball team picked up where it left off in the regular season — namely going undefeated — in last week’s Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 3A District 7 post-season tournament in Meadville.

The Lady Bulldogs picked up back-to-back wins in the series by downing both Port Gibson, 41-36, and Hazlehurst, 50-22, to improve to 20-7 on the 2022-2023 season thus far.

Most importantly, FC was a solid 12-0 against 7-3A teams during the campaign – sweeping district foes with a 10-0 mark during the regular season combined with the pair of tourney victories.

Several members of the Lady Dawgs’ squad also picked up district accolades for their efforts on the hardwood with DeAsia Buie, Kennedy Washington, Harmoni Porter and Ja’Kya Brown earning All-Division honors and Niyla Wright being chosen as the 7-3A “Player of the Year.”

FC Head Coach Rickey Van O’Quinn was selected as the 7-3A “Girls’ Coach of the Year” by his peers.

Here is a breakdown of last week’s district tourney contests involving Franklin County:

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

FC 41, PORT GIBSON 36

The championship game between the No. 1-seeded Lady Bulldogs and the No. 3-seeded Lady Blue Waves on Friday, Feb. 10 came down to a story of two halves — the first 16 minutes of momentum belonged to Port Gibson while Franklin County owned the final two quarters of play.

Port Gibson and FC battled to a 6-all tie in the first quarter before the former outpaced the latter, 16-8, in the second frame to hold a 22-14 advantage by the mid-game break.

After intermission, the Lady Dawgs’ offense found its groove with runs of 13-7 in the third quarter and 14-7 in the fourth stanza to ultimately claim the 41-36 victory.

FC’s Brown and Porter paced their team with 11 points each as Washington and Wright contributed six apiece in the win.

Specifically, Porter had a pair of three pointers to her credit and Brown had one from outside the arch to start the contest.

Additionally, Buie finished with five points and Arya Williams chipped in two.

As a whole, Franklin County was 10-of-20 (50 percent) from the free throw line as Wright sank 2-of-2 (100 percent) and Williams was 2-of-3 (66.6 percent).

Buie finished 3-of-6 and Porter wound up 1-of-2 (both 50 percent) from the stripe while Brown was 2-of-7 (28.5 percent).

FC advanced from the district tourney as the No. 1 seed from 7-3A in entering the initial state-wide playoffs made up of 32 teams while Port Gibson claimed the No. 2 seed from the region.

Franklin County faced off against 5-3A No. 4-seed Enterprise of Clarke County on Monday, Feb. 13 while Port Gibson was scheduled to battle 5-4A No. 3-seed Union.

• • •

FC 50, HAZLEHURST 22

After drawing a first-round tournament bye, Franklin County looked sharp in its 50-22 second-round win over Hazlehurst on Thursday, Feb. 9.

The Lady Bulldogs dominated the first half of the contest by offensively imposing their will on the Lady Indians with runs of 10-4 in the first quarter and 16-6 through the second frame.

The home team didn’t let up after intermission by outscoring the Lady Indians, 24-12, in the third and fourth quarters combined.

Brown finished with 14 points for the Lady Dawgs as Buie added 12.

Wright chipped in eight points in the victory while Porter scored five, Washington and Raine Edmond tacked on four each, DaShara Hannon contributed two and Teearlynn Faust had one.

Franklin County struggled at the free throw line in going 6-of-19 (31.5 percent) as Buie hit 2-of-4 and Faust was 1-of-2 (both 50 percent).

Brown was 4-of-9 (44.4 percent) and Porter finished 1-of-4 (25 percent) from the stripe.