MANDEVILLE — Franklinton’s Demons went 2-2 this week in the Raising Canes Mandeville Summer Basketball League.
After going 1-1 in Monday’s games with a 76-38 win over Albany and a loss to Bay High, 58-54, Franklinton played a pair of close games on Tuesday. All four games were at Mandeville High School.
The first contest was a 58-54 win over Northlake Christian School.
The game was close throughout, as neither team led by more than 10 points, which was Franklinton at 54-44 with 3:32 left in the second half.
The Demons trailed 5-0 just 3:13 into the game, but quickly tied the game by the 15:11 mark. T.Y. Pope grabbed an offensive rebound and hit the putback to make it 5-2. Raisean Hart drained a 3-pointer to even the score at 5-5.
Northlake Christian regained the lead, 8-5, shortly after Hart’s 3-pointer, and eventually went up 11-7.
Franklinton came back with another 5-0 run. Avant Monie hit a layup and Pope converted a 3-point play to take a 12-11 advantage.
Later in the half, the Demons were ahead 23-21 with 6:53 on the clock when they scored six consecutive points.
Pope grabbed his own miss and hit the putback. Kian Conerly hit a jumper and Albert Browhaw pulled down an offensive board and made the follow-up shot. The Demons had a 29-21 lead with 5:04 on the clock and they led 31-25 at halftime.
The Wolverines opened the second half by banking in a 3-pointer, but Pope pushed the lead back to six by converting a 3-point play. Pope made it 36-28 with a dunk.
Northlake Christian then went on a 16-4 run to take a 44-40 lead with 8:34 remaining in regulation.
Again, the Demons came back, this time with 14 straight points.
Conerly was successful on a jumper and then Lorenzo Hart gave the Demons the lead, 45-44, by hitting a 3-pointer. Pope added to the lead by pulling down the offensive board, hitting the follow-up shot, getting fouled and hitting the free throw to cap off the 3-point play. It was 48-44 with 6:59 left.
Conerly hit a layup and Pope tallied the next four points with a pair of 2-pointers. The Demons led 54-44 with 3:32 left.
Northlake Christian responded with seven straight, trimming the lead to 54-51 with 1:58 to go, but a 4-0 run by Franklinton essentially sealed the victory.
Raisean Hart, who was along the baseline, passed to KeAndre Martin for a layup. Martin was cutting down the lane and received the perfect pass for the bucket. Pope hit for two more with 36 seconds left to make it a seven-point game. The lead was never in jeopardy after that in the 58-54 contest.
Pope led the Demons with 27 points.
Conerly tallied 11 for Franklinton.
Raisean Hart posted seven points while Monie recorded six. Lorenzo Hart had three while Browhaw and Martin added two each.
The Demons came up short in the second game with a 60-57 setback to Slidell. Franklinton had a chance to send the game into overtime, but missed a potential game-tying shot at the buzzer.
“We have gotten better each week,” Franklinton coach Brad Oestriecher said. “Every player is learning their role and working hard to fill that role.”
Teams in the league play a pair of 20-minute halves with a running clock until the 1-minute mark of the second half. At that point, the clock stops on every whistle. Players fouled in the act of shooting, are awarded one free-throw attempt that is worth the same number of points as the shot is.
The Demons are 10-6 this summer. The league continues this upcoming week.