New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 29, 2024

Franklin pulls away past CC

By Alan Chamberlain | February 27, 2008 11:04 am

Charles City coach Andre’ Jones believed his Lady Panthers would have a better outing at home against Franklin’s unbeaten, district-leading Broncos. It never worked out that way.

In the two teams’ second meeting in less than a week, Franklin began to pull away late in the second quarter and cruised to a 70-40 win. The Feb. 15 outcome upped the Broncos’ Tri-Rivers District mark to 10-0 while Charles City finished the regular season at 6-4 and 12-8 overall.

“I thought we played better on Monday. We didn’t lose by as much,” Jones said, pointing to a loss five days earlier at Franklin.

“They made adjustments and we made ours, but we just didn’t play to our level,” he said. “It was just one of those nights where we ran into a buzz saw and it just kept cutting.”

One adjustment the Broncos made was to take Charles City’s top scorer, Jolisa Williams, out of the game. By halftime, Williams had no field goals, only two points from the foul line, and three personal fouls. She finished with a season-low nine points, well below her 23 points per game average.

Thanks to Franklin shooting just 22 percent from the floor, the Lady Panthers were able to stay within striking distance for almost the entire first half. Williams broke into the scoring column with her pair of free throws at the 3:06 mark of the second quarter to pull Charles City within seven at 23-16.

Both teams endured scoreless droughts until 20 seconds remained in the half when Williams was saddled with her third foul in a dive on the floor for a loose ball with Franklin’s Eboney Joyner.

Jones erupted off the bench in protest and was slapped with a technical foul. Joyner then stepped to the line, sinking both shots of a double bonus from the Williams foul and both technical free throws.

Franklin was awarded the ball out of bounds and capitalized on Janice Holemon’s stick-back in the waning seconds. The six-point turnaround handed Franklin a 29-16 lead at the break.

Charles City could not draw closer than 12 points in the third quarter. The Broncos then finished off the period with an 11-0 run to take a comfortable 55-30 lead into the final quarter.

Joy Wynn’s 10 points led Charles City. Shana Braxton finished with seven followed by Ebony Coles’ five, Amanda Adkins’ four, Shaunte Williams’ three, and Stormie Adkins’ two.

In the JV game, Franklin jumped out to a 12-5 first quarter lead and pulled away from there for a 50-23 win.

Toni Harris tossed in 10 points to lead Charles City. Chayla Swinson scored five followed by Hilary Wynn’s three, two each from Chiquita Black and Logan Madison, and one from Jasmine Binford.