PENDLETON — The Pendleton Heights girls basketball team stuck with Frankton all night on Saturday, Nov. 18, but sluggish starts to each half kept the Arabians from pushing through during a 67-59 loss.
Pendleton Heights (3-3) dropped a game to Greenfield-Central the previous night.
The Arabians appeared outmatched early against Frankton, unable to keep pace with the Eagles’ offense and their 6-foot-1 senior Destyne Knight. Knight scored 10 of her 22 points in the first quarter.
“We just can’t do that,” head coach Chad Cook said of his team’s slow start. “We dug ourselves holes that are hard to come out of when you’re playing good teams.”
Cook said he thought his team did well handling the defensive pressure from Frankton, but too often his players would settle for rushed jump shots.
At one point, Frankton owned a 16-5 advantage, but a 3-pointer from junior Kailyn Graham sparked a 12-6 Arabians run to end the quarter. Graham finished the night with 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting.
The second quarter turned into the Lauren Landes show. The Pendleton Heights senior scored 13 of her 15 first-half points in the second. Her final make of the half gave the Arabians a brief 34-33 lead. Landes led Pendleton Heights with 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
The lead was soon erased by a bucket from Knight, and Frankton (5-0) went into halftime with a 35-34 advantage.
The Arabians came out in the third quarter looking the same as they did in the beginning of the first. Frankton scored the first seven points of the second half and had Pendleton Heights in a 44-36 hole. The Arabians didn’t score until Landes made a two-pointer with 3:20 to play in the quarter.
“We’ve been really cold at moments,” Cook said. “We’re gonna have to get to shooting better and then be a little selective with the shots we’re shooting.”
But just as they had done before, the Arabians clawed back and tied the game at 56-56 with a little more than three minutes play.
A 6-0 Frankton run put Pendleton Heights in a position of having to foul, and the Eagles finished their business on the free-throw line.
“You don’t expect this team to just go through without bumps and bruises,” Cook said.
Pendleton Heights already had learned the lesson of how to play with a large lead in a 42-41 win against Westfield, and now the youthful Arabians know of the importance of not falling behind at the beginning of the half.
Cook said he’s looking forward to Pendleton Heights possibly getting another shot at Frankton in January in the Madison County Tournament.
“This group is gonna grow so much by then,” Cook said. “We’re gonna be better than we are now.”
PHHS is back in action on Nov. 24 at Shelbyville.