GREENFIELD - In the playoffs game plan execution is a matter of life and death.
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If a team is executing, then they have every chance to win any game.
If they aren’t thene more than likely they will lose.
“It really wasn’t a good week as far as our execution,” Calhoun Warriors head coach Ryan Graner said. “It was glaringly obvious that our rebounding had come back to bite us.”
The No. 5 Warriors season came to an end at 18-8 as they fell to the Franklin (Coop) Vipers 59-55 in the IHSA Class 1A Greenfield semifinals on Tuesday night.
“We just made a few too many mistakes and you can’t do that against a good team and they definitely bit us tonight,” Graner said.
Mitchell Bick scored 18 points, while Blake Booth added 14 in their last career basketball games.
Easton Clark and Damien Pohlman chipped in 11 and nine points respectively.
Franklin (Coop) (20-10) is in their first year of co-opping (Franklin and Waverly) and advances to play Carrollton at 7 p.m. on Friday for the regional championship.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled for our kids,” Franklin (Coop) head coach Dave Suits said. “To win 20 games and to get the opportunity to play in a regional championship, the feeling you get when you come out on the floor is unlike any other.”
Mark Talbert led the way with 18 points, Lewis Wallbaum added 17, and Ryan Couturiaux finished with 14.
Calhoun scored the first four points, but the Vipers connected on four triples in the first quarter and led 16-13 after one quarter of play.
It was back and forth in the second frame until the Warriors went on a 6-0 run to go up 27-23, but a Couturiaux mid-range jumper at buzzer cut it to 27-25 at the half.
The third quarter was back and forth too, but South County took smart shots and executed well, which is what they did in the second half overall.
Wallbaum and Couturiaux especially had huge second halves.
Wallbaum scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, including eight in the fourth quarter.
Franklin (Coop) hit another buzzer beater, this time by Talbert as he pulled up from 13 feet and hit a shot with Booth in his face.
With under three minutes to play, Wallbaum connected on a contested shot three feet away from the basket to give the Vipers the lead for good at 51-49.
He sank three out of four free throws to stretch the margin to 54-49 and then scored on a transition layup to give Franklin (Coop) their biggest lead at 57-50 with under 50 seconds to play.
Blake Booth hit a trey to cut the deficit to 58-55 and the Vipers missed both of their foul shots with 10.2 seconds to play after the Warriors fouled, but Talbert got the all-important offensive rebound.
He was fouled with 8.1 seconds to go and made one of two foul shots to book the Vipers ticket to the regional final against Carrollton.
Franklin (Coop) has met Carrollton two times this season and lost both encounters by a combined seven points.
Both games were in South County territory, Franklin and Waverly, and now the Vipers will be playing in a gym that Carrollton is very familiar with in Greenfield and is closer to Hawk country.
“I’m really happy to get the opportunity to play on a Friday night,” Suits said. “If we come out and play all four quarters like we did tonight then that makes a big difference. We’ll see what happens.”
As for coach Graner he had nothing but pride to speak of his seniors, including Bick and Booth.
“It was a great group of kids and this is always extremely hard. I know it’s extremely hard on them,” Graner said. “As a coach it doesn’t get any easier. Fun group to work with.”
Bick and Booth were four-year starters under Graner and both have experienced the ups and downs of early losses in regionals and winning won in 2014.
“I had the chance to talk to all of the seniors, Mitchell and Blake in particular. They’re two special players and they’ve given a lot to the program.”
Bick is a 1,000-point scorer and Booth, who hadn’t have missed 20 games his sophomore year with an injury, could’ve gotten their too, according to Graner.
“Hopefully I’ve provided some encouragement to younger kids on what it takes to be a high-level varsity player,” Graner said.
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