Newsday Athlete of the Week is Southampton's Alex Franklin

Good luck trying to outwork Alex Franklin.

Franklin, a junior point guard on the Southampton boys basketball team, has had an intense work ethic drilled in him since childhood from his father, Edgar. Franklin is consistently putting in additional workouts before and after practice to the point where coach Herm Lamison said the only way to keep him out of the gym is to “lock him out.”

But for Franklin, the work isn’t tedious. He’s exactly where he wants to be and doing exactly what he wants to do to prove himself as one of the best boys basketball players on Long Island.

“My Dad instilled in me young about being in the gym and working out and that’s always just stuck with me,” Franklin said. “I’m in there before practice, after practice. It’s just my love for getting better at something and getting better at it every day.”

The fruits of Franklin’s additional work were displayed as Southampton began its pursuit of a fourth straight county championship. He had 37 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in an 83-41 victory over Kings Park in the Suffolk Class A quarterfinals on Monday to be named Newsday’s Athlete of the Week.

“He was just dominating in the flow of the game,” Lamison said. “I didn’t even realize he had 37 until the end of the game, honestly. Alex is a kid who works so hard during the season, during the offseason, and the biggest problem I have with Alex is he won’t rest.”

Franklin doesn’t want to rest until the job is finished. Although Southampton has won three straight county titles, the Mariners are chasing their first state championship since 1999. Southampton (20-1) is the top seed in the Suffolk Class A playoffs and plays No. 4 Miller Place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Longwood in the semifinals.

“We’re all locked in,” Franklin said. “We know the goal, we know what we have to do to achieve it . . . If we play our game, our competition is really us and I think we can make a run this year.”

Franklin was battling some knee pain from tendonitis leading into Monday, but with additional physical therapy and training, he was able to have his highest scoring performance of the season.

“If we had more kids to put the time into their game like he puts the time into his game, it would be a coach’s dream,” Lamison said. “The harder you work him, the more he wants to work.”

Franklin, at 6-3, is bigger than your typical point guard and uses that to his advantage as a tough rebounder and defender as well. Franklin has started on varsity since early into his freshman season and Lamison sees huge potential.

“He likes physical play, he doesn’t mind (contact) and in today’s game, kids don’t like to be touched,” Lamison said. “But he doesn’t mind mixing it up a little bit. He’s lean, strong, quick — he’s becoming a complete player.”