Ferrell, who leads the Southwestern Buckeye League with 20 points per game, was the team’s lone returning starter and one of two players who came back from last year’s senior-laden squad.
Franklin (14-8) opened the season 1-5 but has been solid in the second half and now heads into its Division I sectional opener Feb. 20 on a six-game win streak with Ferrell leading the way.
“It’s been an adjustment for everybody because she and my senior (Morgan Stidham) are my only two that returned,” coach Leah Sams said. “Our struggle early on was to find balance between Layne and the rest of her teammates. She’s found a spot where she fits in, where she can be a teammate but lead the team.
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“We went to Waynesville in our third game of the season, and she scored 39 points and we still lost. After Christmas, we came together, and she’s been steady. She’s scoring 20 points a game, but also probably doubled her assists since Christmas. She’s finding teammates and still having a hand in the scoring herself.”
In scoring 39 points at Waynesville on Dec. 8, Ferrell broke 2015 graduate Mackenzie Glenn’s record of 37 points in a game. She then made 43 consecutive free throws during a six-game stretch to shatter the previous record of 17, and the next day after that streak ended she went 17 of 18 from the line to establish a new mark for most made free throws in a game. With 147 made free throws through the end of the regular season, Ferrell already bested her own record from last year (115) for most makes in a season.
With 439 points this year, Ferrell is 11 away from Glenn’s season point record, and if she keeps her scoring average and free-throw percentage (87.5 percent) where they are now, she will break the program record of 19.67 points per game in a season and the free-throw percentage record of 82 percent.
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“I try not to think about it,” said Ferrell, who has offers from Northern Kentucky University and Texas Tech. “The only one I really focused on was points in a game. If I think about it too much, I start to freak out. I get a little nervous when I get close to one of them.”
Ferrell was an impact player last year, leading the Wildcats with 15.3 points per game as a freshman. However, the points seemed to come easier while surrounded by veteran players.
The help she had then is still developing with this year’s young squad.
“Her role is huge this year,” Sams said. “She scored for us last year, but she didn’t have to do all of it. This year she has to get that 20 points a game and her teammates have to score. We’ve been focused on trying to get six or more scoring every game, and we’ve been pretty successful with that since Christmas.”
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In some ways, it’s easier for Ferrell this year, though. Most of her teammates are sophomores or freshmen she’s played with throughout her career.
Stepping in as a freshman last year with so many seniors, Ferrell felt a little out of place.
“Most of the people on my team are in my grade, so I’ve played with them forever,” she said. “They take the pressure away because I know what they are going to do. Last year, I was thrown into the mix with a bunch of seniors who had played together for a while and I was the one trying to get used to them. We’re really young this year, but we’re playing a lot better now. We had a bit of a rough patch early on, but now we’re really coming together.”
Ferrell said she didn’t expect to play such a big role that quickly, but realized a few games into last season that she needed to play well for her team to succeed. The biggest difference this year, she said, is she’s more consistent.
Her defense also has improved — she averages 4.8 blocks per game and 2.3 steals while also grabbing 8 rebounds per game — but Sams would like to see her offense evolve to include more 3-pointers. She shoots 33 percent but should be taking more 3s, according to Sams.
“Teams are sagging and trying to stop her on the drive because she gets the majority of her points in transition,” Sams said. “One-on-one in transition is the best part of her game. She could be a bigger threat if she would shoot the 3 more. She has a good shot, but it’s something we’re still working on to extend her game and make people guard her tougher so we’re a 3-point threat as well as a driving threat. I think if she does that, the sky is the limit for what she can accomplish.”
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