By Andy Amey
SHARPSVILLE — Sam Karr calls Chelsea Francis “a big-game” player for his Turkey Run girls high school basketball team, and because she was on Saturday night the Warriors have ended their regional drought.
Francis scored 14 of her team’s 15 points in the first quarter, assisted on five of the next seven Turkey Run baskets and the Warriors defeated Lafayette Central Catholic 46-32. They’ll head even farther north next Saturday for semistate play against either Fort Wayne Canterbury or Oregon-Davis.
“I don’t know what this means to Turkey Run, because I haven’t been there very long,” said Karr through post-game tears, “but to me ... I can’t put it into words.”
Warrior seniors Logan Cox and Tiffany Marshall were happy enough to do that for him.
“It’s exciting,” said Cox. “We’ve come up here three years in a row; it’s my last year, and I wanted to go farther.”
“This is the first time in the history of our school in girls basketball that we’ve won a regional,” said Marshall, “and it’s just amazing.”
Marshall’s four years at Turkey Run include starting as a freshman, missing one entire season with injury and serving as a valuable reserve as a senior.
“At times I questioned whether [all the hard work and rehabilitation] was worth it,” she said with a wide smile Saturday night. “At this moment, it was all worth it.”
The Chelsea Francis first quarter, which included Turkey Run’s first 12 points plus a buzzer-beating rebound basket, gave the Warriors a 15-10 lead — and it would be the only quarter all day in which a Turkey Run opponent reached double-figure scoring.
“I just turned to the basket and looked, and took the shot when it was open,” said Chelsea Francis. “I think this was my best game ever.”
“We got the ball in the right people’s hands,” noted Karr. “Everything goes through Chelsea Francis at this point, and then the others step up when we need them.”
For the rest of the game, the Warriors seemed on the verge of pulling away only to have the Knights battle back.
It was 23-14 and Turkey Run had the ball late in the second quarter, but by halftime the margin had been trimmed to 24-19. Early in the third quarter, some back-and-forth play left the Warriors ahead 28-24, and then there was a stoppage of play to clean the court of liquid that had been spilled in front of the Turkey Run cheering section.
“I thought we looked a little fatigued before the half,” said Karr later, mindful of his team’s problems playing the championship game on short rest the previous two years. “I think that soda event really helped us.”
The Warriors got the next two baskets, Chelsea Francis passes setting up Adrianne Francis and Shelby Davies for layups, and when Jordan Hunt got a fourth-quarter deflection and hit a short jumper at the other end, the Warriors had finally reached a double-figure lead.
LCC had one last gasp, hitting four of six free throws to cut the margin to 36-30. But the Knights didn’t hit a fourth-quarter field goal until its final minute, and even its own shaky free throw shooting couldn’t keep Turkey Run from pulling away.
Chelsea Francis had 22 points and five assists for the winners, with Adrianne Francis — the big scorer in the morning game — adding eight points and eight rebounds. Hunt also scored eight and Davies did her usual outstanding defensive job, harassing Lafayette’s Olivia Walker into 2-for-13 shooting.
“Defensively we wanted to key on Walker; that was our main focus,” Karr said, “and we just wanted to contain the others and not let them get second shots. We didn’t do a very good job stopping second shots in the first half.”
Ashley Adams scored eight for the Knights, with Molly King adding seven plus a game-high 12 rebounds.
“We just wanted to go in there, do our job and get a regional title,” said Chelsea Francis of her team’s mind-set Saturday night. “Now we want to go to the semistate and get a semistate title.”
Against Randolph Southern, the Warriors used a strong defensive effort to beat handily a team that Karr had been worried about.
Adrianne Francis led the winners, who didn’t allow more than nine points in any quarter, with 18 points. Stephanie Lord had 14 for the Rebels.
TURKEY RUN (47) — S.Davies 2 4-7 8, A.Francis 9 0-1 18, C.Francis 1 4-8 6, Newnum 0 0-0 0, Hunt 2 2-3 7, Marshall 0 2-2 2, M.Francis 2 0-2 5, H.Cox 0 1-2 1, L.Cox 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 FG, 13-25 FT, 47 TP.
RANDOLPH SOUTHERN (28) — Morrow 3 0-0 6, Franklin 0 0-0 0, Shrum 0 2-6 2, Wissel 2 2-3 6, Lord 7 0-0 14, Davis 0 0-0 0, Spencer 0 0-0 0, Clevenger 0 0-0 0, York 0 0-0 0, Owens 0 0-0 0, Losey 0 0-0 0, Spencer 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 FG, 4-9 FT, 28 TP.
Turkey Run 13 10 14 10 — 47
Randolph Southern 7 5 7 9 — 28
3-point goals — Hunt, M.Francis.
Next — Turkey Run moved into the championship game with a 19-5 record. Randolph Southern finished 18-7.
Lafayette Central Catholic 32
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Walker 2-13 1-5 1-2 6 1 3 6
Hainje 1-8 0-0 4-4 3 1 2 6
King 3-8 0-0 1-2 12 0 2 7
Roswarski 0-3 0-0 3-4 3 2 3 3
Adams 3-14 1-3 1-1 4 1 5 8
Dieterle 0-0 0-0 0-0 3 0 0 0
Gruse 0-1 0-0 0-0 3 0 0 0
Cramer 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Hruskovich 0-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 0
Haan 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Aschenber 0-3 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0
Martin 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Totals 10-53 2-9 10-13 *41 5 15 32
Turkey Run 46
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
S.Davies 2-5 0-0 1-2 3 3 2 5
A.Francis 4-6 0-0 0-0 8 1 2 8
C.Francis 8-13 0-0 6-8 6 1 3 22
Newnum 1-4 1-3 0-0 3 1 0 3
Hunt 3-8 1-5 1-5 3 2 2 8
M.Francis 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Marshall 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
L.Cox 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Karr 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
H.Cox 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 18-36 2-8 8-15 *30 8 9 46
Lafayette Central Catholic 10 9 7 6 — 32
Turkey Run 15 9 10 12 — 46
FG Pct. — LCC .189, TR .500. 3-pt FG Pct. — LCC .222, TR .250. FT Pct. — LCC .769, TR .533. (*) Includes team rebounds — LCC 3, TR 5. Turnovers — LCC 10, TR 10. Assists — LCC 3 (King 2), TR 12 (C.Francis 5). Blocks — LCC 1 (Gruse), TR 2 (A.Francis, C.Francis).
Next — Turkey Run (20-5) plays next Saturday in the semistate at either Elkhart or Warsaw against Fort Wayne Canterbury or Oregon-Davis. Lafayette Central Catholic finished 13-12.
