PEARL RIVER — Franklinton scored the game’s first 10 points, played solid defense throughout and used the third quarter to end any doubt of the outcome, in a 54-27 victory over Pearl River in a District 8-4A road game Friday night.
The Demons won the tip and T.Y. Pope tallied the game’s first points with a dunk after grabbing an offensive rebound. He then hit a layup after taking a pass from Raisean Hart 1:36 into the game.
Kian Conerly hit a 3-pointer from the right corner and Keandre Martin knocked down a three from the left corner as the Demons were out in front 10-0 with 5:34 left in the first quarter.
Pope scored a game-high 32 points, which included a 3-pointer.
Conerly posted 10 points and hit a pair from beyond the arc.
Martin tallied six points on two 3-pointers and Hart recorded two points for the Demons.
Pearl River’s Andrew Dauth ended the run when he was good on a layup with 5:05 left that made it 10-2.
It was 12-4 after one quarter.
Franklinton led 17-6 early in the second quarter when Pearl River went on a 6-0 run. Whitney Friloux and Brock Simon hit a three each to close the gap to 17-12.
The Rebels got closer at 19-15 with about 3:30 left, but the Demons scored the final nine points of the half.
Pope hit two free throws. He then grabbed an offensive rebound, hit the putback and got fouled. He missed the free throw, but had the lead up to eight. Conerly hit a three and Hart was good on a layup with five seconds left and the Demons led 28-15 at the break.
From there, Franklinton’s defense, which was solid throughout game, took over and held Pearl River to just 12 points in the second half.
For the game, the Demons’ defense blocked 11 shots and forced a pair of 10-second violations.
Pope said defense is very important.
“I encourage all of my teammates to play defense before offense, because our defense can turn into ‘O’ anytime, so that’s what I encourage them to do,” Pope said.
Franklinton coach Brad Oestriecher said his team played very good defense.
“We play hard in spurts and I just wish we could do it over a 32-minute game, but we played hard for the most part. We gotta keep it up for 32 minutes,” Oestriecher said.
Franklinton outscored Pearl River 26-12 in the second half on its way to the win.
Lagarian Bell tallied four points for the Demons.
Franklinton improved its record to 13-7 after Friday’s win.
Friloux topped Pearl River with 11 points, which included three 3-pointers.
C.J. Hawkins tallied six points while Dauth had four and Simon and Nykeim Williams posted three each. Simon and Williams both hit a 3-pointer.
Pearl River, which went 4-20 last season, fell to 10-8 this year.