The sixth-seeded New Franklin girls pulled their second upset of the Glasgow Basketball Tournament on Saturday, defeating fourth-seeded Harrisburg for the third-place hardware.

New Franklin opened the tournament with a five-point upset over third-seeded Fayette but lost a one-point heartbreaker to seventh-seeded and eventual runner-up Westran in the semifinals.

Harrisburg won a tough battle against the home team on Monday, taking down fifth-seeded Glasgow 61-43. On Wednesday, they lost to top-seeded Cairo 60-33 after hanging with the three-time tournament champs for three and a half quarters.

The young New Franklin team was all business on Saturday, shocking a normally relentless Harrisburg team with a 25-11 performance in the first half.

Harrisburg was held to just three points in the second quarter. And coach Ryan Richardson said his team fell flat and didn’t approach a three-game week as needed. 

“New Franklin came out with an edge and something to prove,” he said. 

On the other sideline, New Franklin Parker Gross said he was happy with how his team played throughout the entire week.

“We played two tough basketball games on Tuesday and Thursday, and after losing by one on Thursday the way that we did, it would’ve been incredibly easy to come out today, at the end of a long week, and struggle to find the energy needed to compete the right way,” he said. “The girls did a fantastic job, played hard, and really executed some things well on the court. To see the balanced attack on offense tonight was something we want to see all the time.”

Harrisburg found a spark in the second half and nearly turned the table, outscoring New Franklin 10-4 in the third quarter to cut the deficit to eight points heading into the final period.

But New Franklin found another gear and sprinted to the finish line, posting 23 points while holding district rival Harrisburg to just five to claim the 26-point victory and the third-place trophy.

Richardson contends that the fourth-place finish was a result of his team failing to finish a three-game week. “It wasn’t as much as what New Franklin did versus what we didn’t do,” he said. “We made some mistakes and pressed too much to make a play happen and got away from our basic offensive and defensive concepts, which really hindered us.”

No Harrisburg players finished in double digits. Sophomore Maddy Mitchell led the team with nine points. Freshman Isabelle DeMuth chipped in five points.

On the other side of the scorebook, point-guard Lily Chitwood led three New Franklin sophomores in double figures with 16 points, nine rebounds, four steals, and six assists. Lydia Burnett added 14 points with four rebounds, two steals, and two assists. Skylar Shaw had her best game of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double.

“Skylar was a big impact in the middle for us,” Gross said. “Lily and Lydia can both shoot the ball well and handle the basketball for us and I thought they did a nice job this entire week for us. 

“As a young team, our entire group is still learning a lot, but I am very proud of their start to the season and love the way they are competing together as a group.”

New Franklin’s merciless schedule did not afford the team to celebrate the third-place finish for long. On Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs returned home to host district rival Fayette in a rematch of the tournament opener seven days prior. The game was played after the Advertiser had gone to press.

Harrisburg also returns home this week for a 7:15 tipoff Wednesday against Class 3 Father Tolton. The 1-2 Lady Trailblazers are coming off a devastating 91-30 loss to Incarnate Word Academy on November 28 and are hungry for a win.

Harrisburg holds a 7-5 record in games played against Father Tolton dating back to 2013 and has won four of the last five bouts.

While Harrisburg may be licking its wounds after two straight losses in the tournament, Richardson said his players make up a very good team. “We will have our ups and downs this year as we are a very young squad. But all the goals we have year in and year out are still in front of us. We will get back to work and continue to work toward playing our best basketball at the end of the year.”

After Wednesday’s game, the Lady Bulldogs will get nearly a week off to heal up and regroup before hosting Lewis & Clark Conference rival Fayette at 6 p.m. on December 12.