With Indiana up early and an uncomfortable few minutes starting to fester for Franklin Regional, coach Jesse Reed put his team on pause and made a switch.

It was more like he flipped a switch.

“We came out in a zone,” Reed said. “We went back to our man (-to-man), and that really led to layups, which is key for us.”

Opening the door to a transition game allowed the 16th-seeded Panthers to find their rhythm early and blow past No. 17 Indiana, 71-50, in a WPIAL Class 5A preliminary-round boys basketball game Thursday night in Murrysville.

Franklin Regional (12-11), which made 11 of its first 14 shots, advances to play at No. 1 Montour (21-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the first round of the playoffs.

“You never want to lose at home,” Reed said. “And we wanted to send our seniors out on a high note. I am proud of our guys and how they competed.”

Senior guard Connor Crossey’s career season continued as he led the Panthers with 24 points, while backcourt mates senior Jonah Johnston (14) and sophomore Anthony Mitchell (11) also reached double figures.

Crossey was a role player last year during the Panthers’ magical run to WPIAL and PIAA runner-up finishes. He and senior forward Drew Devola are the two most experienced returnees from that group, and their knowledge showed in the playoff opener.

Devola was active in the paint and finished with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting.

“We talked about pressing their guards, and that let us get into transition,” Crossey said. “It feels good to get the win, but there is still a lot to do.”

Indiana (10-13), back in the WPIAL playoffs for the first time since 2018 — the year it reached the semifinals — spent most of the night chasing a double-digit deficit.

“We let the moment get to us a little bit,” Indiana coach Andy Lansberry said. “They looked like a team that made the state final last year, and we looked like a team that hadn’t been here in seven years.”

The Indians led 10-7 after a 3-pointer from senior Stanford Webb. But that’s when the Panthers shifted to man-to-man defense and layups began to spring.

Crossey scored seven straight points to lead a 9-0 run, and the Panthers took a 24-14 lead into the second quarter.

“They are just really good in transition,” Lansberry said of the Panthers.

The lead swelled to 40-21 at the half after the Indians were limited to two field goals in the second quarter.

Sophomore 6-7 forward Aaron Webb, who also scored 24, had 10 in the third. But the Panthers stretched the margin to 62-34 late in the quarter with a 12-3 spurt, as sophomore Webber Rankin finished a fast break.

“He’s going to be a college player,” Reed said of Webb, one of three siblings on the team. “He can shoot it, he moves well and he might still grow more.”

Crossey hit two 3s during the run, and Johnson scored off a steal.

“Connor has exceeded my expectations,” Reed said. “You look at what he did last year and what he sacrificed.”

Stanford Webb had two 3s and eight points in the fourth, but the Panthers flirted with the mercy rule when the feisty Mitchell scored inside to make it a 29-point lead (68-39).

Stanford Webb, a Geneva commit, finished with 11 points, and senior Jake Petrovich had nine.

“We got some great minutes from our guards,” Reed said. “Our goal was to make (Indiana) uncomfortable.”

The Panthers will take their up-tempo style and man defense on the road now to face a staunch challenge from Montour, which averages 68.5 points and features 6-foot-11 Ama Tening Sow, who is from Senegal, West Africa.

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Sow is a Tennessee at Martin commit.

“Montour is very good, and they’re No. 1 for a reason,” Reed said. “We haven’t seen size like that have all year.”