Conoley's career game leads Grizzlies to first win
By Matt Muncy, November 24, 2009
The Grizzlies bounced back from their season opening loss with a victory over the Millikin University Big Blue Saturday. They won 88-78 and improved to 1-1 on the season.
Franklin jumped out to an early 14-0 lead before Millikin scored. Millikin pulled together a 13-2 run to close within one, 26-25, with 7:28 left in the first half.
“You have to look at how you got the lead, we got it by stopping them on defense, and I was happy to see us push the lead back to 11 at halftime after they cut it to one,” said head coach Kerry Prather.
The Grizzlies led at halftime 44-33 after outscoring the Big Blue 18-8 in the final 7:28.
Franklin maintained their lead throughout the second half, pushing it to 17 at one point. The Big Blue got within eight points on four different occasions, but could not get any closer.
Sophomore Will Conoley led the Grizzlies with a career-high 29 points and seven rebounds. He shot 11 of 14 from the field and managed to hit his first 10 shots.
Freshman Gunner Erwin has another great outing as he went 5 of 8 including 3 of 6 from the three-point arc. He dished out five assists and grabbed eight rebounds. Sophomore Levi Holsher went 5 of 6 from three point range and finished with 20 points.
Prather acknowledged his team had a good enough inside presence to make the opponents accommodate which helped his guys get open behind the arc.
“We have guys who shoot well when they are standing still and we need guys who can create that.”
The Grizzlies committed 21 turnovers which led to 24 Millikin points. After two games, Franklin has turned the ball over 38 times.
Prather said he wants his team to be a little more patient and not in such a hurry.
“Most of them were the right idea, wrong read, but we are still figuring it out.”
The Big Blue were outshot 60.4% to 48.5% and they only attempted one three-point field goal while the Grizzlies went 9 of 17. Franklin finished with 30 rebounds while the Big Blue had 32 including 13 offensive rebounds.
Sedric Ferguson led the Big Blue with 19 points; Joscar Demby added 16 and Robert Burton finished with 12.
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