SLIDELL — Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016 is a date anybody associated with Franklinton High School basketball won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

It’s the night the Demons beat Salmen.

“To us, it’s two things that had to happen. We’re 0-for-5 in our last five playoff games. They’ve all been on the road,” Franklinton coach Randall Ginn said. “We’ve never beat Salmen. They came in our district nine years ago and so we were 0-17 against them. And they hadn’t lost a district game against anybody and that includes when we had East Jefferson and Riverdale and Lakeshore (still in the district) and everybody else in our district, so it wasn’t just us that wasn’t beating them.

“It’s a monumental win.”

The Demons’ 60-53 District 8-4A victory was Salmen’s first district loss since the 2007-08 season.

“The seniors are in the locker room crying over a win. That’s bigtime,” Ginn said.

The Demons had a 14-point lead late in the third quarter at 43-29, but Salmen began chipping away and trimmed it to 47-45 with 4:01 left in the fourth quarter.

Salmen’s John Norvel, who scored eight points on 8-of-9 from the free-throw line, knocked down four free throws in as many attempts over a 15-second stretch after Salmen trimmed it to six. The free throws cut the lead to two.

It appeared that Salmen had the momentum, but the Demons responded.

After his second set of free throws, Jadwynn Warren, who had a team-high 18 points, nailed a big 3-pointer to push the lead to 50-45.

After the shot, Warren also came up big on defense. He made a steal on the ensuing possession and passed to Azende O. Magee for a layup, forcing Salmen to call timeout with Franklinton on top, 52-45.

But the Spartans continued to come back. With Franklinton leading 56-50 at the 2:28 mark of the fourth quarter, Deitrick Stovall, who posted six points, knocked down a 3-pointer and trimmed the lead to three with 1:52 left.

The Demons called timeout. They came out, spread the floor, ran time off the clock, but turned the ball over on an errant pass with 1:04 to go.

Franklinton kept Salmen off the board on the next possession, but the Demons missed two free throws with 29.9 remaining.

Salmen missed a game tying 3-pointer and Magee, who had 12, was fouled. He stepped to the line and hit 1-of-2, making it a two-possession game, but Nick Burkhalter grabbed the offensive board. After an FHS timeout, Warren was fouled with 15 seconds left and he split from the line, making it 58-53. The Demons made a steal and Darrius Dawson, who recorded five points, made both free throws with 8.9 seconds left, making it a three-possession game at 60-53 and essentially sealing the victory.

After the final buzzer sounded, Franklinton was able to celebrate a monumental win.

“We put a lot of work into this,” Ginn said. “Like I say, we take pride in the fact that last year here, we competed against them. It was fairly close for a while. We lost by about 10. We lost by 10 at home this year and (tonight) finally broke through the hump. We put a lot of work in that people don’t see behind the scenes.”

Franklinton is 19-6 overall and 4-1 in district.

Tray Anders tallied 10 points for the Demons.

Resean Hart posted six points while Sam Smith had five and Peter Williams and Burkhalter each added two.

Salmen is 17-11 overall and 5-1 in district.

Trevor Carrere finished with a game-high 22 points. Carey Holmen recorded seven, while Rasheen Lewis had five and Tyrone Adams finished with three.