Franklin Drives Cougars to 99-76 Win

Press Release/News Article
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MCC 99 Quinsigamond 76

MANCHESTER – The MCC Women’s basketball showed no ill-effects after an 18-day holiday break.

Jhenel Franklin (Windsor) had a quadruple-double — a game high 25 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds and 10 steals — as Manchester Community College beat visiting Quinsigamond CC 99-76 Saturday afternoon at East Catholic.

“I’m surprised they played as well as they played considering we only had three practices in that layoff. Three. That’s it,” MCC Head Coach Robert Turner said after his team beat Quinsigamond for the second time this season. “But we went over some stuff on Friday and we went over some stuff in the classroom before the game.”

Shanika Hines (Manchester) had 24 points and five assists for the Cougars, who improve to 9-2. MCC jumped out to an 8-0 lead and led 50-40 at the half. Freshman Erika Murphy (Torrington) had 20 points and seven rebounds while classmate Amanda Colon (New Britain) had 11 points including six free throws in as many attempts.

Franklin was clearly the difference. The sophomore transfer controlled both ends of the court and the 25 points was a season high and nearly 16 points higher than her average.

“Jhenel picked it up big time,” Turner said of the point guard who is averaging a triple-double through 11 games. “She put up a lot points and normally that’s not her thing.”

“She’s great,” a smiling Katurah Andrews (East Hartford) said after the game. “She looks this way and it goes that way. You just have to put your hands up and be ready for the ball. You don’t find a lot of point guards that actually know the point guard position, but she knows her position very well.” Andrews collected seven points in the victory while playing a strong defensive game that included six rebounds and four steals.

Lindsay Campbell had 20 points to lead Quinsigamond.

MCC is off until Saturday when it travels to Haverhill, MA for a noon game against Northern Essex CC. The team’s next home game is Tuesday January 13th against Holyoke CC. Tipoff is at 6pm at East Catholic.