The New Franklin boys pulled away in the final seconds of a raucous Central Activities Conference showdown against cross-county rival Glasgow to win 72-68 in front of a boisterous crowd on their home court Thursday.

The game came down to the final minute of a fourth quarter that saw both teams leading on the scoreboard, with the Bulldogs sinking three of four free throws in the last six seconds to win by four.

Glasgow had a chance to tie the game with 1.1 seconds on the clock. Senior Preston Thies missed the first shot. He then tried to bounce the ball off the rim with the hopes his team would claim the rebound and score on a putback. But a lane violation gave possession back to New Franklin, forcing Glasgow to foul one last time to halt the clock.

New Franklin sophomore Caden Schlotzhauer then iced the win from the free-throw line, sinking both shots with two-tenths of a second left to make it a two-possession game.

That last minute was a distillation of the other 31 minutes of a tight ball game that saw six ties and 19 lead changes, with neither team leading by more than six points at a time.

“This game was an absolute battle of back and forth,” said New Franklin coach Jim Schlotzhauer. “Both sides had a lot of big plays that made the game fun to watch.”

For two teams that like to run up and down the court, much of the game was played in the half court. There were plenty of transition baskets, but both offenses were forced to score more points from set plays. New Franklin scored well from the paint, while Glasgow used its back door passing to open up easy buckets.

Glasgow coach Mick Cropp wanted to see his team score more in transition than it did. “That’s what we want to do, too. We can do that just as well as anybody. That’s the way we want to play. We just never really got a chance to run any offense or anything.”

For New Franklin, the defense was set up to deny Glasgow’s star layer, Jordan Fuemmeler. The senior surpassed the 2,000-point career milestone in the first half of the season and is a deadly shooter anywhere on the court.

“I thought we did a pretty good job with our pressure,” Schlotzhauer said. “When Fuemmeler didn’t have it, we certainly got up and got after the other guards. And I think it made them play a little faster. They were playing at a faster pace, I think, than they wanted to. Although they do play well when they’re playing fast. But there were a lot of balls off hands and different things like that that went out of bounds. And we got some deflections and some loose steals. And I think that certainly made a difference in the game.”

New Franklin drew first blood as senior Drake Clark put the Bulldogs on the board just 33 seconds in. Both teams battled for the lead in a back-and-forth first quarter that ended with Glasgow in front by four. 

New Franklin was held scoreless in the last 90 seconds. Meanwhile, Fuemmeler sank his second 3-point shot of the night to put his team in front. Senior Colton Sellmeyer then scored a quick bucket with two seconds left to give Glasgow a 17-13 lead after one quarter.

Fuemmeler then made it a six-point game with a putback on Glasgow’s first possession of the second quarter.

But the Jackets couldn’t control the ball, committing an array of turnovers in the second quarter that allowed the Bulldogs to creep back in.

Coach Cropp said turnovers and rebounding were the difference in the game. “Definitely in the first half. And in the second half, we just could not keep them off the boards, especially at the free-throw line. They were just either out-hustling us or out-jumping us. It was tough to lose that way.”

The Bulldogs found their rhythm late in the second quarter, with eight points in the last 1:47. They also kept Glasgow off the scoreboard for all but one shot in the last two minutes of the first half. That one shot was a triple from junior Jackson Strodtman on the left side of the arc with 18 seconds left. It kept Glasgow firmly in the game, but New Franklin had jumped ahead by one at halftime, 34-33.

The second half was not much different. After trading punches in the first minute, New Franklin put together a 7-2 run to go up 45-39 midway through the third quarter. 

But Glasgow answered with seven straight points, five of which came from Fuemmeler, who capped off the run with a three-point play to retake the lead for the Jackets, 46-45.

The two teams were neck and neck all the way to the end of the third quarter. A final bucket by Drew Rhorer a second and a half before the buzzer sounded put the Bulldogs in front 57-55 with one quarter left to play.

“Drew really finished well going to the rim,” Schlotzhauer said. “Having three post players like that, he did a good job stepping in and getting some easy buckets.”

The final stanza was just as close as the first three periods. Glasgow tied the game on a bucket from the paint by Fuemmeler on the Jacket’s first possession of the period. But New Franklin went back in front with five straight points. The Bulldogs would lead by as much as five points midway through. 

But like the rest of the game showed, no lead was safe.

A final contested 3-pointer from Fuemmeler on the right side of the arc with 1:15 left to play made it a one-point game and set off both teams on a mad dash to the finish line.

“We had some opportunities. We definitely had our opportunities to come on the road, play a tough team like this right down to the last tenth of a second,” Cropp said. “We turned the ball over too much in the first half, and we gave up entirely too many second-chance opportunities in the second half. It’s a tough loss, but it’s one we can learn from.”

Fuemmeler led Glasgow with a game-high 28 points. The senior banked three baskets from the arc and shot a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. Sophomore Jackson Meyer added 13 points with a 3-pointer in the third quarter. Thies added 11 points but made just one of five attempts from the line. Senior Ryan Graves chipped in nine points with a 3-pointer in the first quarter.

Glasgow netted three of its six 3-point shots in the first quarter. As a team, the Jackets finished 7-for-12 from the line.

New Franklin finished with a worse free-throw average (52%) but had way more chances, sinking 13 of 25. Twelve of those chances came in the third quarter, with seven makes.

Clark led the Bulldogs with 19 points, nine of which were scored in the third quarter. But he made just one of four shots from the line. Senior Connor Wilmsmeyer fared no better from the line with a 1-for-5 performance, but still managed to score 14 points. Usually a force in the paint, the senior sank a 3-pointer to tie the game late in the third quarter.

Rhorer finished with 13 points and made three of his four free-throw attempts. Senior Jake Marshall sank two crucial 3-pointers in the second quarter and made a pair of free throws in the fourth to finish with eight points overall. Sophomore Caden Schlotzhauer also had eight points with a 3-point shot in the first quarter and 5-for-8 free-throw shooting.

New Franklin improves to 11-2 overall, while Glasgow drops to 8-4. New Franklin faces three road games this week, including back-to-back CAC matchups and a rescheduled game against Community on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Bulldogs were scheduled to travel to Pilot Grove after the Advertiser went to press. On Friday, they head to Jamestown.

Entering Thursday’s game, Glasgow was fresh off a second-place finish at the Salisbury Tournament after falling to the host team and reigning Class 2 state champion. The Yellowjackets hope to get back on track this week with two winnable conference games. First up was Slater on Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press. The Wildcats (6-7) got the best of the Jackets by just four points in their first meeting in the opening round of the Glasgow Tournament in November. On Friday, Glasgow hosts Sturgeon (5-9) for Homecoming. The boys’ game is set to tip off at 7:30 p.m.

Starting next week, both teams jump back into tournament play. Glasgow heads west across the Missouri River to Slater for the Wildcat Classic. New Franklin opens the Sturgeon Tournament as the No. 2 seed against Pairs (2-6) on Jan. 23.