SLIDELL — Franklinton and Salmen went down to the wire Friday night, with the Demons coming up short in a 53-51 loss in the District 8-4A opener at Salmen.
The Demons trailed 53-50 late and went to the line for three free throws with 2.2 seconds left. They missed the first and made the second. With so little time left, the Demons missed the third free throw intentionally for a chance at the offensive rebound. Franklinton got the rebound and had a chance to tie, but missed a couple of putback shots as Salmen held on for the 53-51 win.
“The ball didn’t really bounce our way the entire game,” Franklinton coach Brad Oestriecher said. “We had a lot of shots go in-and-out. Sometimes that’s how the game is. We played our butts off and that’s all I can ask. We played until the end. We fought hard and we get a second chance at them later on in the season.”
Franklinton, which never led, got off to a tough start, as the Demons fell behind 10-2 with 2:07 left in the first quarter after Salmen made an 8-0 run.
Franklinton trimmed the lead to 13-7 by the end of the first quarter and made it 13-9 on the opening possession of the second period when Marcus Conerly hung in the air and hit a jumper.
The Demons caught Salmen at 17-17 before the Spartans went on a 7-0 run to make it 24-17 with 1:47 left in the first half.
But the Demons came back with four in a row to close the gap by halftime. Darius Dawson passed to T.Y. Pope for a layup with 1:16 left and Conerly made a steal and hit the layup on the next possession to trim the deficit to three points at halftime.
That was the theme of the game. Salmen would get out to a lead and the Demons would continually come back.
The Spartans’ biggest lead was 10 at 38-28 with 41.1 seconds left in the third quarter.
It was 38-30 through three quarters.
Franklinton continued to chip away at the lead, but came up short.
The loss put the Demons with a 12-9 overall record.
Two Franklinton players tallied in double figures, including Sam Smith and Pope.
Smith finished with 11 to lead the team while Pope finished with 10.
Dawson and Conerly tallied nine points each. Dawson hit a pair of 3-pointers while Conerly had one.
Sheldon Baham and Raisean Hart put up five each and Rodney King added two. Baham and Hart each hit a 3-pointer.
Salmen is 14-7 this season.
Mike Young and Dietrick Stovall both posted 14 points to lead the Spartans.
Reese Klein scored 12 points, all on 3-pointers.
Tyrone Adams posted eight points, including two 3-pointers, while Keith Sandrock had four and Rahsheen Lewis added one. Sandrock hit a 3-pointer.