BRENTWOOD – The new alignments haven't interrupted an old rivalry.
The Ravenwood High School boys basketball team still gets fired up about facing Franklin — and certainly fired up about beating them.
"It's still Franklin — so it's always going to be a big game," said Ravenwood senior Matt Williams, who knocked down five 3-pointers and scored a team-high 16 points to help the Raptors earn an impressive 64-43 home victory over the Admirals on Friday night. "(With) both student sections going crazy, it's just a great outing."
Friday's matchup had less postseason ramifications than it has in years past — since Franklin and Ravenwood are no longer in the same district, following the TSSAA's realignment process — but it still featured plenty of energy and emotion.
And ultimately, for Ravenwood, plenty of satisfaction.
"There's less pressure now that it is a non-district game, and I didn't have quite as much anxiety as normal, but it's still meaningful to beat Franklin," said Ravenwood coach Patrick Whitlock after his team improved to 6-3 on the season. "They have the best overall program, from start to finish, in Williamson County. They place a high precedent on basketball, and it's always going to be meaningful to play them."
Ravenwood had 10 players reach the scoring column in the victory, including three in double figures. In addition to Williams' 16 points, Lee Molette added 13, and Andrew Lamuno had 10.
Williams said the Raptors effectively shared the basketball throughout the game.
"When we start moving the ball like we were tonight, there's not a lot that a defense can do about it," said Williams, who hit two 3s from the right corner in the third quarter, including one just as the horn sounded. "My teammates did a great job of setting me up tonight."
Tom Fortner finished with a game-high 17 points for Franklin (7-3), and Jack Medalie added 10.
Ravenwood, which suffered a 63-58 loss to Franklin on the road last month, zoomed out to a double-digit lead in the opening minutes of Friday's game, when Mulder scored seven first-quarter points to help Ravenwood build a 19-8 lead.
The Raptors stayed in front throughout the second quarter, although Franklin ended the first half with a wave of momentum when Fortner nailed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to trim Ravenwood's lead to 33-26 at the break.
Franklin pulled as close as six points early in the third after another 3-pointer by Fortner cut the deficit to 35-29. But Ravenwood responded with a back-breaking 11-2 run — which included a 3-pointer from the corner by Williams and a pair of buckets in the paint by DJ Starr — to push the lead to 46-31 with 1:50 left in the quarter.
Ravenwood maintained a double-digit lead throughout the fourth quarter despite some shaky foul shooting. They converted just 10-of-20 attempts during the very lengthy quarter.
Aside the free throw shooting, though, it was a crisp performance by the Raptors.
"It's probably our best 32 minutes that we've played all season," said Whitlock. "The thing about Franklin is, if you give them an inch, they will take a mile. So, we wanted to try to establish the tone really early tonight. We wanted to get the ball inside, and then we kind of kept that rolling the rest of the way."
