Lady Panthers Basketball State Playoffs

The Lady Panthers play in the 4th round of the state playoffs tonight. Panther Country wishes them all the best.

Here's is an article in todays Asheville Citizen Times about their playoff run:

Panthers turn season around
by Andrew Pearson

WINSTON-SALEM – Last month, it took the Franklin girls four tries to lock up the Mountain Athletic Conference’s No. 2 seed for the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.
The Panthers (23-6) haven’t squandered an opportunity since, winning their first, second and third postseason games since 1987.

“This group has just shown a ton of heart,” Franklin coach Jay Brooks said. “They’ve paid the price to get this program where it is. Being down here (at the 3-A Western Regional basketball tournament) is something they’ve earned.”
Brooks wasn’t always so cheery. Especially not after the Panthers were upset by Erwin, 47-37, in the MAC tournament’s semifinals on Feb. 20.
That costly defeat put Franklin into a position where it had to win the No. 2 seed the next day in a tiebreaker game against North Buncombe, which the Panthers did. During the regular season, they also had two opportunities to clinch but lost both times.
Now, Franklin and leading scorer Jena Cabe (16.5 points and 3.0 steals per game) faces South Piedmont Conference champion Concord (28-2) at 7 tonight at Atkins High. The Spiders average 73 points a game. Senior T.T. Belcher, who has more than 1,000 career points and rebounds, is the SPC Player of the Year.
“I think we’ve scored 73 points maybe three times this season,” Brooks said. “We’ve had a real tough two weeks with six games. But we’ve also played two of our best games (in the 3-A state playoffs).”
Center Melanie Stewart (5.1 rebounds a game) had double-doubles in the Panthers’ last two victories over Kings Mountain and Charlotte Catholic. Two Panthers dish out two or more assists a game — Evan Moffitt (2.3) and Whitney Harrell (2.1).