BASKETBALL: Bearcats, Lady Bearcats close regular season at Franklin

The Anderson County boys' and girls' basketball teams will close out the regular season Friday, Feb. 15 when they travel to Franklin County for a double-header. The girls' game is set to get underway at 6 p.m. with the boys tipping off first. The girls' game follows at 8 p.m.

“This is a good game at the end of the season because it is a tournament atmosphere,” says Anderson boys' coach Glen Drury.

It is a true rivalry.

Anderson swept last year's games with a 41-point rout in the girls' game but then pulling out a 64-63 win in the boys' contest when the now-graduated Spencer Ruggles drilled a 3-pointer with 9.4 seconds to play.

Over the last 11 times the teams have played, however, Franklin holds a 6-5 lead in both the girls' and boys' series. Anderson will be favored to even that Friday night.

The Franklin boys were 7-14 heading into the final week of the season. After last year, coach Scott Chalk moved to Dunbar and Ryan Timmons, the mega-gifted star, elected not to play his senior year. While Timmons is listed on the Franklin roster, he has not notched statistics this year.

Another starter, Logan Woodside, also elected to forego his senior season to concentrate on football. He has already enrolled at the University of Toledo.

Tommy Johnson is in his first year coaching the Flyers.

“They are down but they still have some nice players,” Drury noted.

Rylan Rowe and Lorenzo McCaskell lead Franklin with 16 and 12 points a game respectively.

On the girls' side, Anderson has already routed Franklin once this year, 58-25 in the championship game of the Franklin tournament back on Dec. 29.

Since that game, however, the young Lady Flyers are 10-3. They put a major scare into Madison Central, one of the 11th Region favorites, and boasted a 20-8 record heading into the final week.

“They have a really young team but they are coming along,” Anderson girls' coach Tony Kays said. “I can guarantee you it won't be as easy as the first time we played them.”

Freshman Dasia Kilbourne leads Franklin, scoring 10.6 points a game.

Girls' game at Owen story online

The Anderson County girls' basketball game at Owen County Monday night ended too late to be included in this week's Anderson News.

A report will be posted online at www.theandersonnews.com and will also appear in the Feb. 20 edition of the paper.

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