“It was hard to get in the paint and hard to get a good shot because they have a good shot blocker,” Gabbard said. “It (the game-winner) was the most open I had been all night. I told myself to make it or we were going to another overtime.”
The basket was Gabbard’s second game-winner in four games as the Cougars improved to 14-6. Franklin dropped to 17-4.
“Garrett plays hard,” Edgewood coach John Thomas said. “He is always around the basket.”
After a quick scramble for a loose ball, Jared Kinzer just missed winning the game for Franklin when his 30-footer bounced off the front of the rim at the buzzer.
The Wildcats, who led by as many as seven points in the second half, hit a pair of cold spells that were compounded by a shaky night at the foul line.
“You are not going to win many games when you shoot 35 percent from the line,” Franklin coach Brian Bales said. “We left a lot of points on the board from missed free throws. We got to the cup any time we wanted, but we didn’t finish them.”
Edgewood, behind six third-quarter points from Eddie Driskell, turned a 28-22 halftime deficit into a more manageable 39-38 hole entering the final eight minutes.
“The first half, we lost their shooters,” Gabbard said. “The second half, we listened and followed the scouting report, and it worked.”
Gabbard tied the game at 44-44 with 1:51 remaining to start a 5-0 run to give the Cougars a 47-44 lead with 1:10 left.
Franklin’s Will Kercher forced overtime with a 3 with just under a minute left to tie the game at 47-47.
“We went cold and didn’t finish some good shots and also took some bad ones,” Bales said. “When we needed a good possession late in the game, we just didn’t get one.”
Franklin started out with a quick 5-0 lead on a 3 by Payton Knott and a basket by Ryan Montgomery, but Edgewood came back to take a 7-5 lead on a basket by Gabbard.
Kinzer ran off the next fight points for a 10-7 lead that grew to 15-12 after the first quarter and 28-22 at the break.
“They like to play fast, and we like to go with that too,” Thomas said. “We weren’t playing bad in the first half. We just took a couple ill-advised shots. We needed to get our shots.”
Driskell topped all scorers with 14 points, while the Wildcats were led by Kercher’s 11 points off the bench.
Franklin closes out the regular season Friday at Valley View. Edgewood travels to Lebanon on Tuesday before hosting Mt. Healthy on Friday.
Franklin 15-13-11-8-1—48
Edgewood 12-10-16-9-3—50
FRANKLIN (17-4): Noah Kremer 6 1 13, Payton Knott 1 0 3, Braden White 1 3 6, Ryan Montgomery 2 2 6, Will Kercher 3 2 11, Jared Kinzer 4 1 9. Totals: 17-9-48
EDGEWOOD (14-6): Nick Noble 4 0 10, Drew Reckart 1 2 5, Ethan McCarty 4 0 8, Eddie Driskell 5 2 14, Garrett Gabbard 4 1 9, Jake Paulsen 2 0-0 4. Totals: 20-5-50
3-pointers: F 5 (Kercher 3, Knott, White), E 5 (Noble 2, Driskell 2, Reckart)
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