Miranda Pederson/Daily News Franklin-Simpson’s Bianca Bryant drives to the basket Monday at Russellville High School.

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RUSSELLVILLE — Franklin-Simpson continued its dominance of District 13 opponents with an impressive 79-37 victory Monday over Russellville in the opening round of the District 13 Tournament at Russellville High School.

Franklin (27-2) got a balanced offensive attack and held Russellville (2-24) to 18.9 percent shooting to advance to Thursday’s District 13 Championship game. The victory also assured the Lady Cats a spot in next week’s Region 4 Tournament at E.A. Diddle Arena.

“We punched our ticket,” Franklin-Simpson coach Lex Lindsey said. “If you make to the regional tournament, you get a check for $4,000, so we get to buy a few more basketballs, uniforms and warmups.”

Franklin breezed through the district in the regular season, beating opponents by an average of 46 points a game. Monday’s contest wasn’t too different, with the Lady Cats quickly establishing control.

Franklin scored the first seven points and jumped to a 17-2 lead midway through the first quarter.

The lead ballooned to 28-5 after a putback by DeYonna Nolan early in the second quarter, before Russellville used a 10-2 spurt to cut the deficit to 30-15 with 3:21 remaining in the half.

The Lady Panthers got no closer. Franklin-Simpson went on a 25-0 run that stretched into the third quarter and led by as many as 45 points before Lindsey emptied his bench.

Chastity Gooch led the way for Franklin with 17 points and nine rebounds. Drea Gooch and Kelleshia Cook both added 13 points and Brittney Payne finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

“When you have a good team, you expect that,” Lindsey said. “The kids played hard. They respected the game. That is all that any coach can ask.”

Nakia Daniel finished with 25 points for Russellville.

“(Russellville coach Dedra Croslin) is playing a lot of young kids in hopes of getting a payoff in the future and she will,” Lindsey said. “At any school you are going to go through cycles. Last year they were really good. With the young kids they’ve got coming up, they are going in the right direction.”

Franklin-Simpson tries for a fourth straight District 13 championship when it faces the winner of tonight’s Todd County Central/Logan County game at 7 p.m. Thursday at Russellville High School.

RHS 5 10 13 9 - 37

FSHS 22 23 17 17 - 79

RHS - Daniel 25, Higgins 7, Hoosier 3, Sydnor 2.

FSHS - C. Gooch 17, K. Cook 13, D. Gooch 13, Payne 11, D. Cook 8, Bryant 5, Brown 2, Hillard 2, Nolan 2, Smith 2, Dinwiddie 2, Williams 2.