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Collins achieves emotional milestone for Frankton
Jan. 26—FRANKTON — The journey to 1,000 career points for Amaya Collins may not have started in Frankton, but that's where the road will end, and she considers herself an Eagle through and through.
Friday night, Collins reached that milestone after torching Elwood at the Eagles' Nest for 30 points as Frankton rolled to a 61-19 win over the outnumbered Panthers.
The girls win preceded a 60-40 boys win over Elwood as Joey Wright led three Eagles in double figures with 18 points.
Collins scored 6.8 points per game as a freshman at Anderson, winning a Madison County title in the process, but moved to Frankton as a sophomore. She has appreciated the support she has received since making the move from Indians' green to Eagles' red.
"The environment here is 20 times better. Nobody there supports the girls, especially when I was there," she said. "I'm definitely grateful. This is a big accomplishment for me. My parents probably wanted it more than me, but I like making them proud, too."
Collins reached the milestone on a basket that looked similar to many of her scores with the Eagles.
After wrestling the ball away from the Elwood ballhandler, Collins drove the length of the court to the basket for the layup and was fouled. The eventful basket came at the 2:42 mark of the second quarter and prompted a scrum as Collins was mobbed by her teammates on the floor.
"Everything just felt good in that moment," Collins said. "You saw that team when they jumped on me. They're so supportive, and I couldn't do it without them."
The achievement for Collins comes just 13 days after classmate Emma Sperry also reached the treasured milestone. They are the first classmates to each score over 1,000 points in program history.
"Her teammates are great. They wanted this night to be about her and her accomplishment," coach Jeff Bates said. "Emma kind of led the charge on that. It was just fantastic. It was so much to see her have that type of success."
"It's tremendous. You don't see it very often," Frankton athletic director and boys basketball coach Brent Brobston said. "It's a tremendous accomplishment, and those two girls — they're hard-working and good ladies who do things the right way."
Sperry finished the game with 12 points and eight rebounds while Darica Dickey paced the Panthers — who were without top players Kendra Sallee and Breelyn Norris due to injury — with nine points and three rebounds.
Frankton's boys limited Elwood to just two field goals and 10 points in the first half, and Wright connected on his first three 3-point attempts. Brobston wanted his team to take control early, and they did so.
"The first half was going to be big, and I told our team that we wanted to put them away by halftime, and I thought we did that," he said. "We wanted to give them no hope, and our defensive effort in the first half was great. I thought offensively we clicked."
Nate Moore finished with 16 points, and Brady Carmack added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Eagles. Elwood was led by Jackson Blackford with 13 points and three assists and Corbin Leavell with nine points.
Brobston credited the defense of Austin Nunley with holding talented Panthers post player James Ward to two points and three rebounds.
The Frankton boys will return to action Saturday evening with a trip to Tri-Central while Elwood travels to Southern Wells on Feb. 6.
The Elwood girls open sectional play at home Tuesday against Eastbrook while Frankton will play at Yorktown on Wednesday against Centerville.
Frankton controlled the boys junior varsity game, picking up a 48-30 win over Elwood. Blake Niccum led Frankton with 11 points while Corbin Leavell scored 15 points for the Panthers to lead all players.
Contact Rob Hunt at
or 765-640-4886.
