Franklin helps Gold Nuggets end their Monday road woes
February 6, 2012

Box score

     NEW ORLEANS — SiMon Franklin scored a career-high 17 points Monday to rally NAIA No. 19 Xavier University of Louisiana to a 67-55 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference women's basketballl victory against SUNO at The Castle.
     The Gold Nuggets (18-7 overall, 8-1 GCAC) won for the 11th time in 13 games and maintained their half-game lead over Tougaloo in the conference.
     Franklin and Brandi Young scored 10 first-half points apiece. SUNO led 17-6 through the first 6˝ minutes, but Xavier gained 14 turnovers thereafter to rally for a 37-28 halftime lead.
     "Monee Franklin took over the game for about six minutes and got some key buckets," Xavier coach Bo Browder said. "She's done that several times this season. We needed her to do that tonight because Jasmine Grant was out most of the game."
     Young finished with 15 points, and Carmen Holcombe had 14 to match her career best.
     Sabrina Scott had 15 points and eight rebounds for SUNO (11-9, 7-4), and April Perry scored 10.
     It was the first time in four tries this season that Xavier won a Monday road game. The Nuggets lost at Tougaloo and William Carey the previous two Mondays and at LSU-Shreveport in November.
     "All those games were winnable," Browder said. "We didn't close the deal in those losses when we could have. I've said all season that when we bring our passion and energy for 40 minutes, we're a tough out.
     "Tonight we got down early but didn't get rattled. We had some nice contributions from our starters and our bench. You've got to have that to win on the road. This was a great team win."
     Xavier outshot SUNO 41.4 to 37.3 percent from the floor. The Nuggets committed 19 turnovers and gained 27, 17 by steals. Young had four steals, and Franklin, Holcombe and Jazmoné Kelly had three apiece.
     Kelly led all rebounders with nine, six in the second half.
     Xavier will travel to Talladega, the GCAC's third-place team, for a 5 p.m. Saturday game.