The 10th-ranked Class 1 New Franklin girls won a come-from-behind home game against eighth-ranked Class 2 Harrisburg in a bizarre last-second turnaround last Wednesday night, 48-46, scoring the winning basket at the buzzer.

During a wild series of events in the final period, New Franklin was able to erase an eight-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to win on a final play that no one could have predicted. After senior Lily Chitwood tied the game at 46-46 on a long 3-pointer with six seconds left, all Harrisburg had to do was inbound the ball and force overtime. But the visiting Bulldogs made a crucial error. The player who received the pass sent it right back to the inbounder, who was still standing out of bounds. The turnover gave New Franklin the ball with 1.8 seconds left in the game under the basket.

New Franklin inbounded the ball to Lily Chitwood, who missed the contested shot. But senior Skylar Shaw rebounded the ball at the right edge of the paint and put up a shot before time expired. The ball went down just as the buzzer sounded, giving the Bulldogs a dramatic win on their home court.

“It probably feels like the biggest win, even though it’s a non-conference game. And the way that it happened makes it feel like the biggest one so far,” said New Franklin coach Parker Gross after the game.

The unconventional ending was the culmination of a series of events that went right for New Franklin and wrong for Harrisburg in the fourth quarter.

“Sometimes it works that way. It’s nice for us to be on the receiving end of it,” Gross said.

Things started off right for the visitors as senior Jaidyn Stephenson gave her team a nine-point lead with a 3-point shot just 20 seconds into the final period. But it would turn out to be the last field goal of the night for Harrisburg, which finished shooting 7-for-12 from the line in the final six minutes of the game.

Meanwhile, New Franklin inched its way back into the game, outscoring Harrisburg 10-4 to come within three points with 1:11 left to play. Harrisburg sank three of four free-throw shots to expand its lead back to five with 26 seconds left in the game. Sophomore Belle Chitwood then sank a long jump shot from just inside the arc on the left side with 18 seconds left to cut the lead to three points.

Harrisburg had an opportunity to go back ahead by five with 13 seconds left in the game, but missed two free throws, keeping their lead at just one possession.

Lily Chitwood then sank the long three to tie the game with six ticks remaining on the clock.

“Lily is a heck of a basketball player. Any time we can get the ball in her hands with an opportunity to make a play, that’s what we want to do,” Gross said. “Most of the teams we play are trying to take that away from us. She does a great job of handling that. She was able to knock down a huge shot coming off the screen on that far wing.”

The comeback capped a second half for New Franklin that was in direct contrast to the first two quarters. The Bulldogs played timidly in the first half, leading to a six-point deficit at halftime, 20-14.

“I told them we were getting good opportunities and panicking out of them or missing someone wide open,” Gross said about his halftime adjustments. “We found those wide-open people in the second half. The way they come up and pressure you at the top, I thought we handled way better in the second half.”

The Bulldogs cut Harrisburg‘s lead to five points after three quarters, but dialed it up in the final stanza to outscore the visitors 17-10 and pull off the exciting finish.

Lily Chitwood, now the highest scoring Lady Bulldog in school history, led three New Franklin scorers in double figures with 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Senior post Skylar Shaw finished with 12 points, including the game winner, and added 10 rebounds for the double-double.

New Franklin senior Canna Jennings added 10 points and seven boards, followed by Belle Chitwood’s eight points. The sophomore had a near-perfect night shooting the ball, sinking three of four shots from the field, including both 3-point attempts.

The home team pulled off the win despite being without senior sharpshooter Lydia Burnett, who was sidelined with illness.

For Harrisburg, senior Lorelei Hunziker further cemented herself as one of the premier players in the area with a game-high 24 points and 8-for-12 shooting from the field.

She also had eight deflections as Harrisburg forced 14 turnovers on the night.

Stephenson added nine points with a pair of threes, six deflections, and four rebounds.

New Franklin finished off the week with a 46-36 loss at Jamestown on Friday. Harrisburg returned to the win column Friday with a lopsided 61-24 Courtwarming win over Eugene on Coach Combs Court.

Both teams play their final regular-season tournaments this week. New Franklin enters the Sturgeon Tournament as the second seed, possibly setting up a third tournament matchup with top-seeded Westran.

After the first-round girls’ games were pushed back two days due to the weather, the Bulldogs were to face the seventh-seeded host team on Wednesday night after the Advertiser had gone to press. A win would likely pit them against against third-seeded Paris on Friday at 6 p.m.

“Paris is a good athletic group. That will be a good ball game if we can get into it, but we have to take care of business in the first round,” Gross said.

Harrisburg was scheduled to return to action in its own tournament on Monday, but games were pushed back a day due to winter weather. The second-seeded Bulldogs were rescheduled to play seventh-seeded Hallsville on at 4:30 p.m. in the middle school gym on Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press. The winner will will tipoff at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the high school gym for the championship semifinals. The winner will advance to the tournament final at 6 p.m. on Saturday.