Sophomore Wes Smith exploded for 17 second-half point to lead the Wabash basketball team to a 73-68 win at Franklin Tuesday night.
The Little Giants outscored Franklin 43-31 in the final period after trailing by seven at the break. Wabash rallied from a deficit as large as 11 points while controlling the rebounding, grabbing 40 boards to 18 for the Grizzlies. The Little Giants had 17 offensive rebounds leading to 21 second-chance points.
Smith tallied 12 points to lead the Little Giants in the first half, connecting on 4-of-10 shot attempts. He took over at the start of the second period, scoring three times in the first five minutes to earase the Grizzlies' advantage with a 43-43 tie. The sophomore also had 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
Franklin tried to run away over the next seven minutes, pushing the lead back to nine points. Smith continued to score with drives through the lane with six more points over a stretch of two minutes to help bring Wabash to within three points.
While Smith's penetraition and offensive rebounding frustrated the Franklin defense, Wabash also found a way to mix in the outside and inside game. Aaron Brock recorded his fourth double-double of the season and second in row with a 17-point, 10-rebound effort. Freshman Derek Bailey and sophomore Andrew Gilman drilled key baskets --- including an early three-pointer by Gilman and a putback basket by Bailey--- to continue to keep the game close.
After Bailey hit one of two free throw attempts to cut the lead to three points, Brock was fouled after a miss by Franklin and added two free throws to make it a one-point game. Another defense stop by the Little Giants led to a Brock layup at the other end of the floor, putting Wabash up 62-61 with 3:22 left in the game.
Smith took over once again, scoring the next six points to boost the Little Giants to a 68-63 advantage. Chase Haltom and Smith drilled five more free throws in the final seconds to complete the scoring for Wabash.
The Little Giants' second half defense was also a key to victory. Wabash held Franklin freshman Will Conoley scoreless over the final 17 minutes of the game after the rookie had led the Grizzlies with 26 points Monday night in a win over Earlham. Senior star Jace Redman hit two key baskets late for seven of his team-high 18 points. His final three-point shot attempt that could have tied the game was swatted away by Smith, setting up the final two free throws for the sophomore. Wabash held the Grizzlies (6-6) to 31 second half points and forced 17 Franklin turnovers.
The win was the first at Franklin by a Wabash team since February 1999 and gave Little Giant head coach Mac Petty his 450th win in 33 seasons at Wabash and 498 for his college coaching career.
Wabash (5-4) returns to action Friday evening with a North Coast Athletic Conference contest at Hiram College at 8 p.m. before heading to Allegheny College Saturday afternoon for a 1 p.m. tipoff.
Wabash made it a clean sweep with a 72-69 overtime victory in the junior varsity game. AZ Zinnerman and Rich Kavalauskas each had 14 points to lead the Little Giants to the win.
Photos - (top left) Wes Smith's 31-point effort helped Wabash to its first victory at Franklin since 1999.
(Bottom right) Aaron Brock scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the year.