Franklin girls find road back to success, rout Bradford

Franklin - After a tough pair of losses dropped it out of the Southeast Conference lead, the Franklin girls basketball team needed to get some of its mojo back.

And the Sabers got a little of it back with an expected 50-21 rout of Kenosha Bradford on Friday.

"No doubt we needed that one," said Sabers' coach Tony Kathrens. "One of the things we like to tell the kids to realize is that we've had three tough losses this year to Nicolet, Racine Case and Arrowhead, and those are the second-, third- and fifth-ranked teams in the state."

"In all of those losses, we were in them for long stretches and in a couple of them, we had chances down the stretch. We tell them that we're doing OK, that we just need to get a few people out of their slumps, especially Jenny Eickhorst."

Eickhorst, a junior shooting guard and one of the Sabers' leading scorers, has been struggling with her perimeter shot, but Kathrens feels it will only be a matter of time for her as the shots are going in and out most of the time.

"She's on rhythm, with good form," he said. "It'll come."

It would help if that would be sooner rather than later as the Sabers (6-2, 9-4) host City Conference power Milwaukee King on Jan. 27 and then will visit rival Oak Creek (5-3, 10-4) on Jan. 31. The Sabers edged the Knights in a physical, intense affair at Franklin earlier this season.

"Morale is good," said Kathrens. "We know we're almost there. It's a long journey with all kinds of bumps in the road. We're pleased with our play."

It was an easy smile Kathrens put on his face on Friday against Bradford, as the Sabers jumped out to a 13-1 lead and made it 25-6 at the half.

A total of nine players scored led by Sam Devcich with 10 while Katie Nord had eight and Cassidy Mihalko and Morgan McCuen tossed in seven each.

"Our man-to-man defense picked it up and we really protected the paint," said Kathrens. "I was really happy with our defensive effort."