The 17th-ranked Panthers, who shot effectively all afternoon, edged the Grizzlies 68-67 to finish in a tie for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season title at 11-3 and improve to 20-5 overall. The Panthers own the top seed for next week's Heartland Conference tournament by virtue of the league's tiebreaker rules.
Franklin dropped to 8-6 in the HCAC and 16-9 overall, winding up tied for third in the league with Manchester College. FC, however, holds the No. 3 seed for next week’s conference tourney, which begins with first-round action on Feb. 22.
Hanover shot 62 percent in the opening period and led by as many as eight points at 31-23 with 4-1/2 minutes to go before halftime before settling for a four-point edge at the intermission. In the second half, Franklin chopped an eight-point deficit at 41-33 to one point with 13:18 left (on a 9-2 scoring run). The Grizzlies, who shot 62 percent in the second period after going just 37 percent in the opening half, pulled to within a point in three more instances, including with just six seconds left when junior center Nick Kane hit a jump shot.
Kane scored a game-high 21 points to surpass the 1,000-point mark for his career and grabbed six rebounds to edge past the 500 mark. He was backed by freshman Jon Neill and senior Jared Sabelhaus with 10 points apiece.
Hanover was paced by Ben Lye, who scored 20 points and pulled down a game-best eight rebounds. Brian Chrin added 12 points and six rebounds for the Panthers, who have either won outright or shared an HCAC championship for five consecutive years.
Franklin will host sixth-seeded College of Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) in the HCAC tournament first round at 8 p.m. on Feb. 22, following the FC women’s team’s first-round contest with Bluffton University (Ohio), which begins at 6 p.m.