LAWRENCE — Everybody and their Uncle LeRoy, Cousin Man-Man and Aunt Betty couldn’t wait for Sectional 10 to tip off on Tuesday night. Why? Because it features No.1 Warren Central, No.2 Lawrence Central, No.5 Cathedral and No.7 Lawrence North. It’s got all of the fireworks and it popped off with Lawrence North knocking off Cathedral 65-59 right out of the gate.
Cathedral jumped out of the ride and went on a 4-0 run to start the game. Armaan Franklin scored 4 of their first 6 points. It looked as though the Irish were going to run away with it. However, Lawrence North was playing at the crib and they weren’t about to get run out of their own gym. Not in front of Big Momma.
Fueled by a Tony Perkins break away dunk the Wildcats from LN went on 15-4 run to close out the first quarter up 15-8. Jared Hankins was not playing with these boyz as he drained a three to keep everybody honest.
Cathedral looked shook as they tried to regroup to get a look at the license plate of that Big Body Chevy that just side swiped them. LN, at the time, was completely out hustling Cathedral. Then the Irish found it’s groove and before I could bite into my hot dog they were only down 21-19.
IU recruit, Armaan Franklin, was in the building proving to boyz why he was going to play for the Hoosiers as he dropped 30 on a boy in the process. Ole boy was getting to the rack like a straight G in the projects. He scored 16 of his 30 points in the first half. He kept them alive as LN got to the break up 28-26 off of a Dorean Hatton put back.
Coming out of halftime Armaan Franklin kept the Irish in the mix as Lawrence Central had several cats doing work. Jared Hankins and Shamar Avance were getting to the rack as well as Jared Hankins locking boyz down and putting up points. However, Cathedral’s Justin Hensley’s jumper stayed wet. As a matter of fact. Hensley knocked down two 3-pointers to end the third quarter to put the Irish up 45-41.
They went up 47-41 and then the bottom fell out of. They lost their momentum when they slowed the rock down. The next thing you know LN had gone on a 12-0 run going up 53-47 and seemed never to look back. Armaan Franklin finally got them back on the board when he got to the rack. He did everything he wanted to do on the floor but paint the stripes bruh.
However, it was going to take a team effort to beat the LN Wildcats on Tuesday night. When the entire team is clicking on all cylinders it’s hard to walk out of the joint with a win. Crazy shouts to Tony Perkins, Shamar Avance, Dorean Hatton and DJ Hughes for doing crazy work to advance to the next round of Sectional 10. Shama Avance lead the Wildcats with 18 points followed by Tony Perkins with 15. It’s going to be a great weekend of games. This is by far the most competitive sectional in the state. Stop me when I start lyin’!