Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1920 — FRANKLIN IS TITLE BEARER [ARTICLE]

FRANKLIN IS TITLE BEARER

JEFFERSON SMOTHERED 31 TO 13 BY NEW CHAMPIONS IN FINAL GAME. Playing the same stellar brand of ball that characterized their play throughout the tournament, Franklin high school seized the basket ball crown of all Hoosierdom by sinking the confident Jefferson five of Lafayette in the tourney final night by a score of 31 to 13, winning under wraps. Never once did the surprise Lafayette five appear dangerous to the chances of the Johnson county entrant, thg first period closing 17 to 8, Jeff recording but , a pair ,of field goals during the session. Franklin splattered the score book almost at will and were superior to the runners-up in every phase of the great winter pastime. The real championship affair wps staged during the afternoon when the new champions dropped the Anderson representatives in what was the greatest game of the entire tournament, winning after a hairbreadth escape in the regulation time by knotting the coiint on a free throw, and then sewing up the contest in the extra five minutes of play by a field goal. Anderson led at half time 8 to 5 and a victory for them looked certain when they went in to the final three minutes of the game with a lead of 12 to 11. It was here that an Anderson player committed a foul which ■wrecked their championship hopes when the Franklin marksman sunk the leather into the net for the tieing marker. The Anderson rooters shed copious tears as their gallant warriors left the court at the close of the combat. Anderson was undoubtedly the second best team of the tournament, only a trifle inferior to the new champions. It was unfortunate that fates decreed that they should meet Franklin in the semi-finals instead of Hartford City or Jefferson, the other two semi-finalists, both inferior to them. ' The new champions are worthy in every respect to be decorated with the olive branch and there is no doubt but that the championship went to the best team in the state. Throughout the entire yeaxf they Stayed steady, consistent basket all, losing but one game, that to the Martinsville five. The team is composed of sturdy tads, schooled in every department of the game, and a credit to Indiana in a basket ball way. They are believed to be the best high school team in the middle west, if not in the United States. Basket ball in Indiana is further advanced than in any ■other state in the union and Franklin stands ready to defend the state s claim against any other high school claimant. . Thus closes one of the most successful tournaments in history, a tournament that was viewed by the greatest crowds in the history of tournaments. It was the ninth annual classic and is an institution that will continue to live and please the fans wherever basket ball is played.