First time seeing Franklin Central this year, but you can expect Mark James teams to play together, play defense, and play with a very high basketball IQ. This was my first look at Pike in regular season action as well. I was at their scrimmage, but not a regular season game.

Pike jumped all over Franklin Central to start the game. It looked like it might be a blow out like the first game of the night. Zavier Turner came out of the gates on fire and had 10 first quarter points. Turner hit a shot at the buzzer to give Pike an 18-8 advantage after the first quarter.

Franklin Central did not play very well in the first half. They took some rushed shots and some uncharacteristic shot selection as a whole. They didn't play like most Franklin Central teams do. Pike was in full control at halftime 31-15 behind Turner's 10 points, Marquis Teague's 7 points, and R.J. Hunter's 6 points.

The third quarter is when Franklin Central started to play like you would expect them to. They were taking better shots, they were playing better defense, and were knocking down open shots. That is what allowed them to get back into the game. One steady contributor throughout the game for the Flashes was John Goodlow. Goodlow was a major factor on the backboards especially the offensive glass. After three quarters, it was Pike 46 and Franklin Central 34.

The final quarter was a quarter of multiple small runs by each team. First it seemed like Franklin Central was going to make it a game and pull within 3. Then Pike would push the gap back to 10. Franklin Central would then answer that run and get it back to 3 or 4 points. This is the way the whole fourth quarter went. Senior Kyle James was big for FC in the fourth. Not to be out done though, Marquis Teague scored 11 of his game-high 24 points in the quarter. Pike made just enough plays to hold on for a 63-53 W.

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