By Brett Okamoto (contact)

Tue, Jan 6, 2009 (1:05 a.m.)

Steve Silver

Green Valley’s Glenn Bewley tries to escape from the guard of Faith Lutheran’s Brett Lubbe on Monday night.

According to Green Valley coach Ole Svendsen, the Gators have so many offensive weapons it's like they take turns commanding games.

If that's true, Monday night must have been Julian Franklin's turn.

Franklin scored a game-high 20 points and had three rebounds Monday night, as the Gators rolled over visiting Faith Lutheran, 68-55.

Although the senior is no stranger to dominating the points column, the Gators have had plenty of players hit double digits this year, including six in a win over Durango on Dec. 3.

"We don't really have one superstar on this team," Franklin said. "In our opinion, we have depth. And you can't stop five players. There are a lot of teams with just two guys who can score, but our team, if you stop one of us, we have plenty more who can bring big plays to the game."

Despite the offensive weapons, the Gators (6-5) will tell you what has kept them from building a dominant record is their inability to put teams away. The team may have taken a big step Monday toward putting that problem in the past, as it opened the second half with 10 unanswered points and led by as many as 20 points.

"Actually, putting away teams hasn't been easy for us this year," Franklin said. "It's the one thing we know we need to change. We have the ability to play with anyone in the state. At halftime coach told us we were doing it again and we knew we needed to go out and prove ourselves.

"We're trying to be the team that people don't want to play."

The Crusaders (5-12) stayed right with Green Valley early, getting a lift from sophomore forward Brett Lubbe, who had 12 points in the first quarter. But when Lubbe cooled off, Faith Lutheran struggled to keep pace. He finished with 19 points and eight rebounds.

"We should have been able to feed off what he did in the first quarter," said Crusaders coach Bret Walter. "And when he started not getting shots, there should have been other guys open. We didn't really get a chance because we were turning the ball over so much and that was the difference."

Even as the game went back and forth early, the Gators looked to the bench to give their starters a rest, which Svendsen said left them in better position to open the second half.

"That's one of our philosophies, is that we feel we have a deep team and we're going to sub a lot early, even if the game is close," Svendsen said. "I think it showed in the third quarter that we had fresher legs and just more in us."

Green Valley girls dominate

The Green Valley girls' team had an even easier time than the boys, as the Gators routed Faith Lutheran 75-12 earlier Monday. After building an early lead, coach Lorenzo Jarvis was happy to give his bench players an opportunity for more minutes.

"They played as a team," Jarvis said. "I made sure my second team played more and we just focused on teamwork today. It didn't matter who scored and we passed the ball around well. Faith Lutheran is a young team, I give them credit for playing hard the whole game. They're a great group of girls."

Junior Jazmine Jarvis led the Gators with 17 points, but said the best part of the game was watching her teammates.

"Seeing the second team get out and score was great," Jazmine said. "This was their chance to do it, and it was fun being on the bench, cheering them on."

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or brett.okamoto@lasvegassun.com.