Franklin’s Kennard draws praise at Flyin’

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By Rick Cassano, Staff Writer Updated 8:53 PM Tuesday, January 17, 2012

KETTERING — Luke Kennard continues to make distinct impressions.

The 6-foot-4 freshman point guard helped Franklin High School’s boys basketball team remain undefeated Monday afternoon as the Wildcats topped Medina 64-49 in the Flyin’ to the Hoop showcase at Fairmont’s Trent Arena.

Kennard had 20 points and seven rebounds. He earned high praise from Bees coach Anthony Stacey, a former collegiate standout at Bowling Green.

“The point guard is super talented, but so under control,” Stacey said. “He plays the game at a different pace than everybody else. He’s never in a rush. Being left-handed and so smooth, he reminds me of Jalen Rose. Jalen Rose always had that swagger, that always-under-control look about him. I thought (Kennard) was that way tonight.”

Rose played for the University of Michigan and six different NBA teams.

Kennard is used to playing at a high level on the AAU circuit. He doesn’t feel like a 15-year-old when he’s on the floor.

“I’m getting used to the pace of high school basketball,” Kennard said. “I feel like I’m a normal senior.”

Bruising play: Monday’s game was quite physical at times, and tempers flared a bit. Franklin’s Rossi brothers, Jacob and Justin, are working to be calmer players.

“Me and my brother, we’re known for losing our heads in a lot of games,” Jacob said. “We know we can’t do that anymore. I think we’re fixing it.”

The big T: Stacey was clearly upset with the officiating in Monday’s game and drew a technical foul with 6:34 remaining.

Stacey declined to discuss the officials after the contest.

“We didn’t lose because of the referees, that’s for sure,” he said. “They outplayed us.”

True to his word: Middletown went down in an avalanche of points by Huntington (W.Va.) Prep on Sunday night, but Middies coach Josh Andrews stuck to his pregame vow of not using a slowdown approach.

“I see no benefit in just stalling and taking a prettier loss,” Andrews said after the 84-30 setback. “We tried to execute our stuff, and we didn’t do it well.”

Express coach Rob Fulford wasn’t surprised by Andrews’ decision.

“You don’t change the way you play because of who you’re playing,” Fulford said. “We just did a really good job defensively. We didn’t want to overplay because of their quickness, so we were trying to sag. We just wanted to make sure we were clogging gaps.”

Huntington buried another up-tempo team, Trotwood-Madison, on Saturday night. That score was 97-38.

The Express returned home late Sunday night and hosted Friendship Collegiate from Washington, D.C., at 3 p.m. on Monday. Huntington won 93-43.

League leaders: Middletown and Franklin are both 6-0 in league play, leading the Greater Miami Conference and Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division, respectively.

Both teams will face conference foes Friday. Middletown, which has a one-game lead over Mason, hosts Lakota West. Franklin, with a two-game edge over Bellbrook and Valley View, visits Bellbrook.

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