Franklin County’s J.T. Edwards isn’t shy about shooting the ball, that’s for sure.Edwards scored 14 of his team’s 18 points in the first quarter as the Eagles (3-0) topped Bassett 67-47 on Tuesday in Bassett.The senior shooting guard finished with a game-high 25 points. He converted 10-of-18 shots (4-of-8 from 3-point land) and made his only free-throw of the night.“You get a good shooter hot, it’s hard to cool him down,” said BHS coach Tom Hering.Edwards’ 3-pointer from the left wing gave his team a 9-7 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. He then pulled up for a mid-range jumper from the top of the key for an 11-7 lead, and following an offensive rebound and layup from teammate J.L. Tyree, Edwards drained a deep 3 before driving to the hoop with 27 seconds remaining in the first quarter for a contested layup.

 “He’s just got a lot of confidence,” Franklin County coach Doug Conklin said of Edwards, “and sometimes when he gets hot, he can stay that way for a while.”To be fair, Franklin County wasn’t entirely a one-man show. The Eagles got 18 points from Chris Tyree and 12 from D.A. Reynolds.Anton McGill and James Turner scored a team-high 13 points for Bassett.Franklin County out-rebounded a bigger Bassett team 33-25 on the night and 17-14 on the offensive end. Bassett also had 17 turnovers, compared to the Eagles’ 12.Hering wasn’t pleased with the effort from his team.“They (FCHS) wanted it more, especially in the first half and the beginning of the second,” he said.“We talked about controlling three things, and we didn’t do any of them in the first half.”Hering had asked his team to focus on controlling the game’s tempo, winning the rebounding battle and keeping possession of the ball.The Bassett coach has added some Princeton-style sets to his motion-based offense, but he wasn’t pleased with the team’s execution of those Ivy League plays, saying, “It’s not even close to where it needs to be.”That’s not to say it can’t get there.The Bengals (2-1) showed flashes while operating out of the Princeton sets — an offense that relies on back-door cuts and non-spoken adjustments to the defense’s actions.The Bengals scored the game’s first basket on a nice cut to the hoop by Matt Chitwood and got their next-to-last score on a backdoor layup from Vershaun Norman.There wasn’t enough of that in between, however, as BHS was unable to control the tempo.Franklin County’s guard-heavy lineup pressed full court after most made baskets and pushed the tempo in transition.“That’s the way we want to play,” said Conklin, “up-tempo because of our (lack of) size.”Hering emphasized that his team has the tools to be successful this season, noting that he’s “gonna keep being patient,” while his team works on execution and focus.The Bengals will look for the season’s third win at Patrick Henry on Friday night.

By JOHNNY BUCK - Bulletin Sports Editor

Photo By- BTW21 Sports