Mike McGraw
Hoosier Authority
You couldn’t blame Fankfort Coach Jason Good if he didn’t know whether to be ecstatic or irate at halftime of his first round sectional game Wednesday night. His Hot Dogs had held West Lafayette to just 5 of 23 shooting and 17 first half points. On the other hand, you can’t totally credit your defense for a team shooting 5 of 23 and Frankfort had sent the Red Devils to the free throw line enough times to leave them in the game. The margin was only nine, 26-17, and honestly, Frankfort was lucky it wasn’t closer than that. The Hot Dogs had hit only 10 of 24 from the field and had been dominated on the boards by their smaller opponent.
On the other side, there was no mistaking West Lafayette Coach Dave Wood’s emotions. He was steaming mad. He was annoyed at his players for what he considered a timid effort, and he was less than pleased with the officials for allowing what he believed was overly physical interior defense by Frankfort to go unpenalized.
In short, it had not been a pretty sixteen minutes of basketball. Unfortunately, there was little in the second half to change anyone’s attitude. This was simply an **** game.
The pattern changed little in the third quarter. The teams took turns going on small runs that had little effect on the direction of the contest. West Lafayette still could not find the range, converting on just 3 of 14 in the quarter. Frankfort still managed to commit enough mistakes and fouls to leave the Red Devils in the battle. West Lafayette did succeed in closing the gap to five, 36-31 late in the quarter. However, two Frankfort scores in transition and the margin was back to nine thirty seconds later. The quarter ended 41-32.
If the first three quarters had not been fan friendly, the fourth was **** by design. The first minute of the stanza may have been the best basketball of the night. Frankfort began the final period with two quick hoops to expand the lead to thirteen. West Lafayette responded by finally finding the mark and hitting three of their first four shots in the quarter. However, Coach Wood knew the quickening tempo favored the more athletic Hot Dogs. So, he was left with no choice but to quickly begin fouling in an attempt to lengthen the game and hopefully trade two points for one on each possession down the stretch. At the other end, a tired Frankfort defense seemed incapable of not sending the Red Devils to the stripe in equal fashion.
The result was 57 fourth quarter points that were generated by an eight-minute free throw shooting contest that took nearly 35 minutes to play. When the smoke cleared and the horn mercifully ended this one, West Lafayette had never narrowed the gap closer than seven. The final margin was twelve, 71-59.
Despite the **** nature of their win, Frankfort deserves a lot of credit in this one. On any given night, you do what is needed to win. On this night what was needed was three quarter of good defense, composure with the basketball, and hitting free throws down the stretch. The Hot Dogs passed all three tests with flying colors.
They will need more on Friday night. Frankfort advances to face defending 2A state champion Northwestern who opened their campaign for a 3A title by dismantling Benton Central.
Steve Lovelace led the Hot Dogs with 19 points, sixteen in the second half. West Lafayette was led by a wormanlike 24 markers from Matt Lancaster.
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