FRANKLIN
The Sussex Central High School Tigers were at the Peggy Wilkins Gym in Franklin High School on Wednesday to face the Broncos on the hard court. The Tigers started off dominating play in the first three quarters of the game. But going down the stretch in the final quarter of play, they watched as the home team — not wanting to go down in their own house — came back to claim a 55-44 win over the Tigers.

The Tigers opened the game in scoring and easily took a 14-8 lead in the first quarter of play.

The second quarter did not look any better for the Broncos, and on many offensive possessions seemed so bad that they couldn’t even buy a basket. However, they did hang in the game enough to be behind only by 19-22 as the teams went to the locker room at the half.

A good pep talk must have been given to them during half time, because at the 3:33 mark in the third quarter the home team only trailed by a score of 23-25. De’Mari Holden closed the Tiger lead to one point (27-28) following a 3-point basket at the 2:13 mark on the clock. By the end of the quarter, the home team slipped ahead with a score of 31-30.

For the fourth quarter of play, the Broncos seemed to remind the Tigers whose house they were in. The quarter completely was all Broncos for offense and defense as they held the Tigers to 14 points while their offense pumped in 24 points. Malik Haley dropped in two 3-point baskets, and teammate Drelyn Ford scored 11 points. 

Franklin head coach Robby Cutchins said, “A tale of two halves again. It was a great second half. The boys came out after half time and were really ready to play defense. They did a good job rotating and a good job on trapping in the half court game. Offensively in the second half, we moved the basketball a whole lot better against a zone. In return, we were able to get the ball inside to Drelyn [Ford,] and be able to work it back outside and get the open shot. But at the end of the day, we did the simple things in the second half to help to put us in a position to win the basketball game.”

In scoring, the Broncos had two players in double figures. Ford led with 20 points followed by Malik Haley with 17 points.

The Tigers also had two players in double figures. They were Isaiah Miranda with 17 points and Johnny Murphy had 11 points.

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Drelyn Ford scores 1,000 career points

In the very early minutes of play during the Franklin High School Broncos basketball game against the Sussex Central Tigers, the game was stopped for a special presentation. Drelyn Ford was recognized by his head basketball Coach Robby Cutchins for scoring his 1,000th career point for Franklin High School.

In comments after the game, Cutchins said, “Hat’s off to Drelyn for what he has done during his career in scoring a 1,000 points. Just a great all-around effort in his dedication to the program, and I appreciate everything that he has done for this program.”