FRANKLIN – Franklin saved its best for last

The Panthers (8-1) erased a 13-point halftime deficit to knock off previously unbeaten Sharon 66-61 in a cross-division Hockomock League battle Monday night.

The backcourt of Henry DiGiorgio and Caden Sullivan came alive in the second half to combine for 40 of their 45 points in the final two quarters alone to keep the Panthers undefeated in league play.

“Both Hank, Caden, and (Andrew) O’Neill, who is dogging their best player all night on defense, and our entire backcourt did a really nice job,” said Panthers head coach C.J. Neely. “Sharon is one of the best teams around so I’m excited.”

Sharon held a slight four-point lead, 18-14, after the first quarter and exploded for a 13-2 run midway through the second quarter. The offensive attack was capped by back-to-back three pointers from Nate Katznelson, who finished with a team-high 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Jacob McLoughlin (10 points, six rebounds, four assists) to put the Eagles out front 29-17 with just under five minutes left in the first half.

“I thought we were bailing them out defensively as we took too many quick shots and we weren’t making them work at all on defense,” said Neely. “(Sharon) did a great job moving the ball and finding the open man early on our guys had to fight through that stuff and that’s what we talked about at halftime”.

But after shooting 6-of-11 from behind the arc to open the game, the Eagles (5-1, 4-1) went ice-cold from three-point land as they fell in love with the long ball, and it came back to haunt them in the end.

“They were falling in the first half, we hit a bunch on Friday, and they didn’t miss by much,” said Sharon head coach Andrew Ferguson. “That’s our offense but I think (Franklin) did a really good job late when we tried to get it inside and taking it away from Nate.”

Franklin added their own run as the Panthers opened the third quarter on a 10-2 run led by the efforts of DiGiorgio who came alive with 10 of his game-high 25 to get Franklin within six, 48-42 after three quarters of play.

“Coming into a place like this, we haven’t won in Franklin in 20-something years so to put in a battle like this – I can’t fault our guys. I’m proud of the effort,” said Ferguson.

The key down the stretch was Sullivan (20 points) who scored on a streaking lay-up, stole the inbound, was fouled on the shot and converted the first of two free throws to cut the deficit to one.

Off the miss on the second end of the two free throws, Sullivan was able to crash the glass and secure his own rebound with a put-back for the Panthers lead to send the Franklin faithful into a frenzy.

Katznelson hit the only three-pointer of the second half for Sharon on a desperation shot to cut the deficit to three inside two minutes to play but Sean O’Leary who was battling a fever the past few days gave Franklin the minutes they needed from their captain.

O’Leary (nine points) rallied in the end for a big bucket in the paint with 1:17 left to give Franklin the lead for good, 60-58. Some clutch free throws from O’Neill and glass work from Justice Samuels, who came off the bench with five rebounds in the final four minutes of play, sealed things for Coach Neely in a typical physical Hockomock tilt.

“Nate is a big problem, a big strong presence inside and I think Justice did a good job pushing him outside because he is a tough matchup,” said Neely. “We said it in our last timeout that this game was coming down to getting those rebounds and hitting free throws – and the free throws got a little interesting – but we closed it out.”