Red-hot Franklin-Simpson made it two-straight 13th-District girls’ basketball titles and maintained its stranglehold on the series with the Todd County Central Lady Rebels after a 64-39 victory on Thursday in Franklin.
Both championship wins have come at the expense of Todd Central, and the Lady Wildcats extended their streak to 13 straight victories over the Lady Rebels.
Franklin-Simpson got out to an early double-digit lead on the way to its 11th win in a row. La’Reesha Cawthorn scored seven, and Naja Nolan and Lyniah Brown combined for six to give the Lady Wildcats a 21-11 advantage.
Alexis Taylor scored half of the Lady Rebels’ 18 first-half points, but Franklin-Simpson continued to add to the margin in the second quarter for a 32-18 halftime lead.
Taylor added six more in the third and five in the fourth to finish with a game-high 20 points, but Todd Central couldn’t mount a comeback. Cawthorn scored six in the third quarter for the Lady Wildcats, and Kloe Smith closed out the win with nine points in the final frame.
Brown and Cawthorn each finished with 17 points to lead Franklin-Simpson, followed by Smith with 15.
Kay joined Taylor in double figures with 11 for Todd Central.
If the Lady Rebels need any inspiration to bounce back from the defeat ahead of next week’s 4th-Region tournament, they need only look back to last season. After falling to Franklin-Simpson in the district championship, they won two in a row at Western Kentucky University’s Diddle Arena before a title-game loss to Bowling Green.
Todd Central 11 7 11 10 — 39
Franklin-Simpson 21 11 14 18 — 64
Todd Central (19-13) — Taylor 20, Kay 11, Ballard 4, Collins 4
Franklin-Simpson (30-2) — Brown 17, Cawthorn 17, Smith 15, Nolan 6, Ray 6, Taylor 3
