COURTLAND
The second Backyard Rivalry between the Franklin High School Broncos and the Southampton High School Indians was a slugout on the glass. The tale of the tape was offensive rebounds for the Indians, as they pulled down 30 on their way to a 78-65 TriRivers District victory.

The Broncos started out the first five minutes of the game on a 12-2 run, with Franklin’s Quinton Lowe finding the lane and hitting two layups, plus the and-one opportunity.

However, Shane Agunzo entered the game for Southampton around this time and the energy seemed to shift. He got two steals, and Darius Bell had one, as Southampton went on a 14-6 run to end the quarter. The quarter still favored the Broncos, but it was only by two points.

“Shane is a key piece in what we do,” said Southampton’s head coach, Sharone Bailey. Agunzo didn’t start as he’s coming off of an ankle injury, but he ended up playing for a lot of the game.

At the 6:52 point in the second quarter, the Indians took the lead and would never look back. The height advantage started to creep in, as Southampton continued to miss shots, but they made up for it with second- and even third-chance opportunities.

There was even a fourth-chance opportunity at around the 3-minute mark. When Agunzo missed a three, Tyran Hunt pulled down the rebound, subsequently missed his own shot attempt. Agunzo got that rebound, missed, and finally Daron Lundy knocked down the put-back attempt. The lead had grown to 10 points, 33-23.

Two possessions later, Agunzo was able to run by his man off of a pass and get fouled in the lane. After missing the second shot, he was able to secure his own rebound from the free throw line.

Franklin wasn’t giving up, however. They took advantage of Bell being out and of some turnovers to go on a 7-3 run to end the quarter just six points down, despite being out-rebounded in the quarter, 22-9.

In the third quarter, the Broncos had one last surge in them. With about a minute to go, Franklin had closed the gap to 51-48, and they had opportunities to close it even further.

After securing a rebound on a Duck free throw attempt, Southampton’s Cedric Parham threw the ball away. Duck was able to fall on it and call the time-out.

Markeem Tyler, on the other end, put up an open floater in the lane, missed and got his own rebound. Off of Tyler’s put-back miss, Parham was able to bounce it off of a Franklin player to give the Indians the ball back.

Southampton tried to move it fast, but was unable to connect on the layup and Franklin’s Quayshaun Jefferson pulled down the board, only to have to slow it down, as he couldn’t sprint past the defense. Duck found an opening off of Jefferson’s pass, but was called for the double dribble.

Jefferson stripped Southampton off of the inbound, but the offense didn’t get set fast enough, forcing Tyler to put up a long three at the buzzer, missing it.

Coming off of those missed opportunities, Hunter Peck sunk the dagger in the Broncos’ hopes during the fourth quarter. During the first 3 minutes and 30 seconds, he scored 10 of his 23 points, including back-to-back three-pointers to increase the lead to 12.

“That busted the game wide open,” Bailey said. “We had been missing from three for most of the night, but right there we started to get good looks.”

Franklin battled, but was never able to get back in it , and Southampton achieved its second-straight win.

“When dealing with a rivalry game of that magnitude, you have a game plan, and you stick to it,” Cutchins said. “But at the end of the day, a lot has to go your way, and that kind of rebounding edge is hard to overcome.”

Bailey said that the game plan was to stay aggressive.

“We’re a big team, so we know we have to stay physical and pound the inside,” he said. “The rebounding was key tonight.”

Peck led all scorers with his 23, and Duck led the way for Franklin with 18 points. Parham had 16 points.

Parham, with a double-double, led the effort on the boards with 12. Bell and Jefferson, for the Broncos, each contributed 10 on their respective sides.

Bell and Jefferson were also a point away from a double-double, each contributing nine points.

Gainey and Agunzo each had eight rebounds, seven of Agunzo’s on the offensive glass.