The New Franklin girls escaped a second-half comeback by Jamestown for a Homecoming victory on Friday, 44-36.

The Lady Bulldogs improve to 12-5 overall after winning their third contest of a three-game week that saw them on the court three times in four days. New Franklin coach Parker Gross said his players showed signs of fatigue when the defense allowed some shots it usually would not.

“I thought we did some things really well at times,” he said. “It seemed like our legs were feeling that at times. Defensively, I thought we were really good in some moments whether we were in man or zone. And there were some moments when we gave up some things that normally we defend pretty well.”

Despite trailing the majority of the game, Jamestown was never out of contention. The Lady Eagles controlled the rebounds, often getting two or three shots on a possession, which, more often than not, resulted in trips to the foul line. 

Jamestown made 22 free-throw attempts, sinking 16 of them while only netting nine baskets from the field all game.

“Rebounding was a big topic of conversation for us at practice. And that was the biggest thing we discussed in the locker room at halftime,” said Gross after the game. “You have to do well at that in order to pull away and to play in tight games.”

The Lady Bulldogs jumped out to a solid lead in the first quarter, pushing ahead 11-3. But Jamestown made three shots in back-to-back trips to the charity stripe in the last 71 seconds to cut the lead to five. New Franklin junior Lily Chitwood sank a bucket late to give her team a 13-6 lead after eight minutes. 

The second quarter was much the same. New Franklin pulled ahead, and Jamestown stayed within reaching distance with three trips to the foul line. 

The Lady Eagles put together a more balanced third quarter to cut the lead to just six points with one quarter left. After dropping behind by 13, Jamestown received a lift from junior Rylee Hirschvogel, who scored nine points in a row for the visitors during a 9-2 run.

“They executed against us pretty well, against the zone moving the basketball and in man-to-man playing tough and getting the ball to a couple of their playmakers,” Gross said. “They are a team that plays really tough all the time. I know they are a young team, but they play hard, and they’ve got a couple of girls who are pretty long. We played a tight game with him last year as well. We expected them to be a tough opponent.”

A pair of free throws by Hirschvogel in the opening minute of the fourth quarter cut the deficit to four points. New Franklin found its footing with a six-point run through the middle of the frame, sparked by a 3-point shot from Chitwood to inch back ahead by double-digits and all but clinch the win.

“I’m glad we were able to come out with a win. One where I felt we could have done some things better, but we did enough to take care of it,” Gross said.

Lily Chitwood led New Franklin with 15 points, the only Lady Bulldog in double-figures. Junior Lydia Burnett added nine points with a timely 3-point bucket in the second quarter.

Hirschvogel led Jamestown with a game-high 18 points as one of four scorers for the Lady Eagles. Junior Samantha Wilson chipped in nine points.

New Franklin gets a few days rest before another three-game week at the Sturgeon Invitational Tournament. The second-seeded Lady Bulldogs were to face seventh-seeded South Callaway at 7:30 p.m. after the Advertiser went to press on Tuesday. A win would advance them to the semifinals at 6 p.m. on Thursday.