FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) — Jahmeer Jordan scored 24 points and added six rebounds as Oil City rally from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit to stun rival Franklin Friday night 56-53 in the Knights backyard.

“Mostly the season’s been down,” Oil City head coach Mark Cochran said. “You can have a bad season and beat Franklin, but that’s not our goal. Our is to be good and bypass Franklin to make the playoffs.

“We’re treating this as another win. We have a 24-hour policy, and we play Hickory and Slippery Rock next week. Those are two winnable games. We finally played as a team tonight, and we finally gelled together, nobody was in trouble, everyone showed up for practice. We had a solid week of practice with all our players, and I thought that the difference.”

In what turned out to be a wild and fantastic finish, Franklin held a 47-42 lead until Jordan’s 3-pointer with 4:40 remaining cut deficit to 47-45.

It started a 10-2 run for the Oilers, who, after two free throws by Morgan pulled to within a point as senior Nico Duprea hit second three of the game with 3:50 left.

The biggest play of the game occurred on the Knights following possession, as a steal by Cade Cochran lead to Jordan’s slam dunk at the 3:34 mark putting Oil City ahead for the first time since early in the third quarter 50-49.

The two teams exchanged a pair of free throws by Morgan and Jordan putting the lead 52-51 Oil City.

On the Oilers ensuing possession Jordan was fouled but missed the 1-and-1. However, the Knights missed back-to-back 2-point field goals putting Jordan back at the line where he sank two crucial free throws extending the Oilers lead to 54-51.

Morgan came right back as his layup with 34 seconds remaining pulled the Knights to within one.

Franklin fouled Duprea with 19 seconds left, the senior calmly knocked down both free throws.

Franklin had its chances to tie the game with three desperation 3-pointers in the closing seconds. However, Nathan Emerson, Javan Shouey and Morgan couldn’t get it to go down handing Oil City the upset.

The Knights were held to 18-of-50 shooting including just 4-of-21 from 3-point land.

“Oil City outplayed us,” Franklin head coach Steve Cutchall said. “It’s unfortunate I have a couple of guys out for different reasons but there is nothing we can do about it. We didn’t play good basketball. This is the worst game we’ve played all year, and it’s probably Oil City’s best game. That’s what it was going to take for them to knock us off.”

Oil City led 29-28 at halftime with Morgan keeping Franklin in the game scoring 19 of his game-high 30 points before the break.

Each team shot 11-of-22 from the field in the first half. Franklin was 3-of-10 from 3-point land while the Oilers went 4-of-8.

For the game, Oil City shot 6-of-12 on treys while nearly shooting 50 percent from the field going 20 of 41.

Franklin, which was playing without starter Ryan Greggs, forced six Oil City turnovers in the third quarter outscored the Oilers 14-9 and took a 42-38 lead into the final quarter.

Ben Mizerak added 11 points and two boards for the Oilers.

“Hopefully we snowball from this,” Cochran said. “Franklin is a great team and is well coached. We’re just glad to get this win and get out of here.”

The win avenged an earlier season 58-39 loss to the Knights where Jahmeer Jordan did not play.

“Having Jahmeer tonight made a huge difference,” Cochran said. “We didn’t have Nico (Duprea) either (in that game). He was suspended for the first half last meeting.”

Oil City 56 Franklin 53

Score by Quarters

Oil City 20 9 9 18 — 56
Franklin 15 13 14 11 — 53

Oil City- 56

Jahmeer Jordan 9 5-6 24, Nico Duprea 2 2-2 8, Ben Mizerak 5 0-0 11, Cade Cochran 2 0-0 5, #20 2 3-4 8, Sawyer Manning 0 0-0 0, Levi Lantz 0 0-0 0, Seth Thompson 0 0-0 0, Dylin Chapin 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 10-14 56.

Franklin- 53

Preston Morgan 9 9-11 30, Brandon Johnson 2 4-4 8, Zane Baughman 3 0-0 6, Nathan Emerson 2 0-0 5, Brendan Gordan 1 0-1 2, Kaden Keely 1 0-0 2, Tyus Wood 0 0-0 0, Javan Shouey 0 0-0 0, Joshua Downs 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 13-16 53.

Three-pointers: Oil City 6 (Duprea 2, #20 2, Mizerak 1, Cochran 1), Franklin (Morgan 3 Emerson 1).