No. 5 Frankfort completes late comeback in 35-32 win over No. 3 Hampshire

Feb. 1—ROMNEY, W.Va. — No. 5 Frankfort trailed for the first three-and-a-half quarters before completing a late comeback in a 35-32 road win over No. 3 Hampshire on Tuesday night.

"We played a class above ourselves, they're 3A and we're 2A," Frankfort head coach Steve Willison said. "We showed we can play at upper levels. To beat this team after they beat us by 25 on our court, it felt great. I think it gave us a lot of confidence."

The Falcons (9-8, 5-2 Potomac Valley) were led by Larae Grove who scored 13 points in the fourth quarter. The Trojans (9-7, 5-2 Potomac Valley) had several chances to retake the lead, but were unable to capitalize.

Down three with 18.4 seconds left, Hampshire's Hannah Ault banked in a 3-pointer that appeared to tie the game. However, the Trojans had called a timeout, wiping out the basket.

"It was a heck of a game," Hampshire interim head coach Troy Crane said. "At the end I call that timeout, we make that three. That kinda killed us. I kinda killed us, it's on my shoulders. Frankfort came to play, they turned their whole season around."

For most of the game, both teams struggled to shoot the ball. In the first quarter, Frankfort shot 2 of 6 and 1 for 3 from deep. Hampshire shot 2 for 5 and was 2 for 7 from beyond the arc.

"They were good shots, we just missed them," Willison said. "Some of them were foul shots. Offensively, we fixed a lot of things. The players seemed to run the offense better and hit their shots."

The Trojans forced four turnovers in the first quarter, two came from steals but was unable to score off either theft.

To end the first quarter, Hannah Ault banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Trojans the 11-7 lead.

Hampshire pushed its lead to 18-8 midway through the second quarter after Ault made two layups and Izzy Blomquist hit a 3-pointer. The defense held Frankfort to one point through three minutes of the quarter.

"Defensively in the first half, we did extremely well," Crane said. "Offensively, we should've been penetrating and getting to the foul line. When we did that, we were doing well. We just can't settle for that 3-point line."

The Falcons cut it to 20-12 with two minutes left in the first half and neither team scored before the break.

In the first half, Hampshire shot 4 for 8 and was 4 out of 13 from beyond the arc. Frankfort shot 4 of 10 and was 1 out of 5 from deep.

"We were happy with our defense, even though we were losing," Willison said. "We knew if our offense did get going, we'd be ok."

The Trojans continued to try 3-pointers in the third quarter and ended up not making any the rest of the way. On the other side, the Falcons focused on finding inside looks.

Down 24-16 midway through the quarter, Frankfort held Hampshire to one point in the final four minutes while the offense scored five points and cut its deficit to 25-21 after three quarters.

"We played good defense that gave our offense a lot of opportunities down low," Willison said. "We ran our offense perfect. We ran three plays in the second half, north, south and west. We changed them back and forth, and every time they were in position."

Grove scored Frankfort's first seven points of the fourth quarter. She hit a jumper that gave the Falcons their first lead of the game at 28-27 with 5:42 left.

The Trojans regained the lead less than 30 seconds later before Grove converted an and-one layup to tie the game at 31 with 1:55 left.

"She made some incredible shots, hand in her face," Crane said. "She's a baller, she made it happen at the right time."

Grove hit her second 3-pointer of the quarter with 1:11 to go that gave Frankfort the lead.

"They had guts, you can't coach that," Willison said. "You can't make a team to have the guts to wanna win. They had that, I'm happy for them."

Following the timeout that wiped out Ault's tying 3, the Trojans missed its shot.

Hampshire had one last chance with four seconds left, but was unable to get off a shot as time expired.

Hampshire shot 3 for 6 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. It was 1 for 4 in the third quarter and 5 for 12 overall.

"If you're hitting them, it will give you confidence," Crane said. "If you're not shooting well from there, your confidence keeps going down."

The Falcons' Grove led all scorers with 18 points. Arin Lease added eight while Avery Noel had six.

"She's streaky, and when she's hot, she's hot," Willison said of Grove. "She didn't shoot well at the beginning of the season. Tonight, she showed she can be a great player."

Blomquist led Hampshire with 12 points while Ault and Liz Pryor each scored nine.

"She was the leading scorer with having the flu," Crane said. "She did incredible with what she was dealing with."

Hampshire traveled to play Berkeley Springs on Wednesday evening. Frankfort visits Parkersburg Catholic on Saturday at 2 p.m.

"We gotta show up and play our defense," Crane said. "I think that's what this team does best. If we do that, we'll be fine."

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.