Franklin, seeded third in the tourney, will take on No. 2 seed Manchester College in the 6 p.m. opening semifinal contest at Hanover College. Manchester defeated Anderson University 76-66 at home to move on. Top-seeded Hanover will face No. 4 seed Defiance College (Ohio) in the second semifinal game.
The Grizzlies (15-11) took command early against Bluffton, holding the Beavers (10-16) to just six points in the first 10-1/2 minutes. Trailing 21-6, Bluffton took advantage of Franklin’s sudden piling up of fouls –- many of them on the offensive end –- and whittled FC’s advantage at the free-throw line. The Beavers hit 10 of 13 foul shots before the intermission. Franklin led by just eight points at 34-26 at the break.
In the second period, the visitors trimmed a 12-point deficit to just four points at 45-41 with 9:20 left before the Grizzlies mounted a 15-5 run to lead 60-46 with 4:30 remaining. The Beavers climbed back into contention again though, cutting FC’s lead to seven points on two occasions before the hosts closed out the game with a 7-2 run.
Franklin sported a balanced scoring attack led by freshman Alan Davidson with 15 points. Senior Justin Castelli had 14 points, junior Nick Scott scored 11 and freshman Darrius Jackson added 10.
Bluffton was led by sophomore Eric Sweet, who tallied a game-high 16 points in a relief role. Sophomore Scott Bergman was right behind with 15.
The Beavers out-shot FC 44 to 43 percent. The Grizzlies hit 23 of 29 free throws (.793) while Bluffton scored on 20 of 25 foul shots (.800). Each team had 30 rebounds and piled up 27 fouls.
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