Kendrick Porter of Westgate (4) shoots over Franklin’s Allen Lockett (42) and Titus Guilbeau (2) on Friday. - Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian

Friday’s basketball game between Franklin and Westgate featured two teams who are expected to make deep playoff runs this year. It featured the Class 3A No. 10 ranked Hornets against the Tigers, who received six votes in the latest Class 5A poll.

It also featured two of the Teche Area’s more prolific scorers in Franklin’s Titus Guilbeau and Westgate’s Fred Joseph.

Guilbeau did his part, scoring 31 points for the Hornets, but Joseph was a little better. He scored 35 points, including eight 3-pointers, as Westgate used a 14-5 run late in the third quarter to pull ahead and win the showdown between the two teams 91-73.

“All day at practice I had been shooting the ball well,” said Joseph, who scored all of his points in three quarters after not scoring at all in the first quarter. “I had been working on driving to the goal and pull-ups. When they decided to try and stop my driving to the goal, I got my 3-point range right.

“I was just feeling it tonight.”

Joseph scored 6 points during Westgate’s third-quarter run and had 12 points total in the period as the Tigers rallied from a 38-37 halftime deficit with 33 points in the quarter to take a 70-56 lead heading into the final period.

“We played with a lot of effort,” said Westgate coach Oliver Winston. “Our execution isn’t the best, but we’re scoring some points so that’s good.”

Winston didn’t tell his team too much at halftime when the Tigers trailed but thought that the pace of the game suited his team.

“We emphasized that we had to get down the floor and get some transition buckets and some open shots and we were able to do that,” said Winston, whose team improved to 9-7 overall headed into its District 4-5A opener at St. Thomas More Tuesday.

The WHS coach was complimentary of Joseph’s efforts on the court Friday.

“Fred’s been consistent all year,” said Winston. “Between him and Brandon (Malveaux) and Deion Thomas, if any one of them get warmed up you better go out and get them.

“It was Fred’s night tonight and when he’s on fire everybody’s going to get him the ball.”

Despite a great effort from Guilbeau and the rest of the Hornets, it was that one stretch of the game in the third quarter that hurt Franklin’s chance of coming out of the Westgate Coliseum with a win.

“We had people in the guy’s (Joseph) face and he went crazy hitting shots left and right,” said FSH coach Todd Viator, whose team fell to 10-9. “When that happens, we try to break the runs but we went cold.

“We knew that it was going to be a high scoring game but we had to score with them. We had a lapse in the third quarter where we missed four, five, six short shots in front of the goal. If we make those shots, it’s a different game.”

Viator said that his team made those shots in the first half to take the halftime lead but that those same missed shots in the second half was the difference.

“We have to be able to finish games,” said Viator. “That’s the same team we played in the first half that we played in the second half. We have to be able to finish game and that seems to be our problem.

“We let them pull ahead in the third quarter and they got confidence, then they shot lights out.”

Joshua Boutte had 17 points for Westgate and Malveaux added 13 points.

“We’re still inconsistent,” said Winston.

“We’re still trying to look for a rotation that’s a little bit more consistent. It was a good win for us and we have to get a little more consistent for next week and St. Thomas More.”

Tevin Williams had 16 for Franklin, who opens District 6-3A play Tuesday at E.D. White.