Allen Ignites Franklin In Playoff Win Over Weymouth

 
 
 FRANKLIN, Mass. — As Franklin prepared all week to go against Weymouth’s aggressive zone defense, the Panthers knew they’d have some looks from outside.

Senior Justin Allen certainly took advantage of that opportunity.

Allen was nearly flawless as poured in a career-high 25 points on 8-for-9 shooting from three-point land, leading the third-seeded Panthers to a hard-fought 61-49 win over #30 Weymouth in a Division 1 Round of 32 game.

“I just hit the open shots, my teammates found me and once I see a couple go in, that basket just gets bigger,” Allen said. “With them in a zone, it just opens things up for us and we have great creators like Ben Harvey and Bradley [Herndon], and everyone else too. They were finding me and I was just knocking down shots.

“We have a bunch of great shooters on this team and that helps me out because they can’t just focus on me. We’ve got guys like Geino [Scaringello], Andrew O’Neill, and Caden Sullivan who can really just knock down threes so you can’t focus on one guy, that’s what is so special about this team.”

Allen and the Panthers wasted little time finding the range against the Wildcats’ 1-3-1 zone. He sank a pair of threes in the opening eight minutes — the first bucket of the game off of a pass from O’Neill (eight points, seven rebounds, four assists) and another from the corner that gave the hosts their first double-digit advantage of the game.

Junior Sean O’Leary (20 points, six rebounds) also dropped in a pair of threes while O’Neill had another for a total of five in the first quarter to help Franklin set the tone, and take the lead (19-10).

Franklin went scoreless for nearly three minutes to start the second quarter but Allen ignited the offense when he hit a three with five minutes to go in the half. His second three of the quarter came just 30 seconds later after Ben Harvey (six points, three rebounds) sliced into the zone before kicking it back out. Allen assisted O’Leary the next trip and then O’Leary returned the favor one trip later, finding Allen open in the corner.

“We’ve really been clicking recently,” Allen said, “That Mansfield loss was a wake-up call for us. We’ve been going really hard in practice and guys know what time of year it is and nothing is guaranteed, no one is going to hand it to us. Weymouth is the 30-seed but that was a tough game, that was a full 32 minutes of competing.”

After hitting his first five threes, Allen went up for a heat check as he quickly launched a deep three off a pass from Harvey and it was pure to extend the lead to 33-21 with two minutes left in the first half. A putback from Harvey inside the final minute gave Franklin a 35-26 halftime lead.

“Three hard days of working against aggressive zone defense,” said Franklin head coach CJ Neely on preparing for the game. “We spent so much time focusing on the 1-3-1 or diamond-and-one, whatever you want to call it. We thought we’d see a lot of zone and then we did a good job getting Justin a lot of good looks. Even other guys got really good looks but just didn’t hit like they usually do. That was a full team win because they gave an unbelievable effort in practice this week simulating their defense.”

The three-point barrage slowed some in the second half but the four triples that the Panthers did hit were timely. O’Neill opened the second half with one and the Panthers were able to attack the basket against Weymouth’s defense, which switched to man-to-man.

Harvey had four straight, including a traditional three-point play, and O’Leary cleaned up his own miss plus the foul. With success getting to the rim, Allen found himself open in the corner and his quick release hit nothing but net, his seventh straight make.

“When they got up on us, and they started denying Justin the ball, we have guys like Ben, O’Leary, and [Bradley] Herndon that can really get downhill and find themselves in the paint, and not only do they get in there, they are willing passers,” Neely said. “Even if you don’t score in there, the ability to get downhill and make the defense rotate. Credit to [Weymouth], they play really hard and made us battle the whole second half.”

Although Allen missed his next three on a heat check, the Panthers carried a 48-36 lead into the final quarter. Sophomore Caden Sullivan drained a three off a pass from Herndon (six rebounds, four assists) off of a set play and the Panthers had their biggest lead at 51-38. The Wildcats clawed back within eight twice but Allen’s eighth and final triple of the game midway through the fourth restored the double-digit advantage and Franklin stayed in front down the stretch.

While Allen was red-hot from three-point, the Panthers had some inconsistencies in the offense throughout the night. But old reliable — Franklin’s defense — stayed steady all night and held the Wildcats under 50 points.

“That’s the beauty of what we’ve done here for a while is the ability to get stops and weather those storms of poor shooting or lack of finishing, we can get through those when we have guys like Harvey playing defense on [Edric Louissaint] and O’Neill on [Gill] Dolan, who had 33 points in a game earlier this year. To be able to shut those primary options down and make other guys score, that’s a great job by those two and everyone else too.”

Franklin boys basketball (19-1) will host #14 Brockton, who took down Methuen, 66-49, in the Round of 16 on Tuesday at 6:00.