An old axiom states that it is hard to beat a team three times in one season. But the No. 7 ranked New Franklin Bulldogs pulled off the trifecta with a thrilling 58-53 win over Glasgow in the Class 2 District 7 Tournament semifinals on Thursday night.

The win came exactly one week after New Franklin won a two-point game over the Yellowjackets in Glasgow to close out the regular season and clinch the CAC title.

For New Franklin coach Jim Schlotzhauer, the win gives him another crack at Salisbury, to which the Bulldogs lost in the title game a year ago and twice so far this season.

Schlotzhauer has been looking at this game since Feb. 22 of last year when the Panthers slid past his team by 13 points, only to go on and win the Class 2 state title.

“We’re a good team. We’re hard to beat three times,” Schlotzhauer said. “Hopefully, the cliche is true, and we can give them a good game on Saturday. They’re going to be tough, but hopefully, we’re up for the challenge.”

But before Schlotzhauer and his Bulldogs could look to get one back against the state’s top-ranked team, they had to take care of business at Glasgow. The Yellowjackets won the right to host the tournament and, therefore, played with the advantage of a home crowd. They also boast one of the top basketball talents in Mid-Missouri, Jordan Fuemmeler. The senior played his first two years in Higbee, where he quickly racked up 1,000 points. Early this season, he passed 2,000 career points, finishing his career with more than 2,500.

Longtime Glasgow coach Mick Cropp has nothing but admiration for his senior scoring leader. “His scoring is obvious. What I don’t think people realize, what they don’t know, is how hard he works every day. How attentive he is. He’s just a great basketball player to coach.”

Schlotzhauer said his plan for containing Fuemmeler was to put constantly exhaustive pressure on him with the hopes of wearing him out.

“We doubled him in the full court, and I thought that was effective just wearing him down,” he said. “They don’t sub as much as we do. I think that was effective late, and they turned it over a few times, and we made hustle plays to get to the ball. Guarding Jordan is tough. He’s really, really good. We talked about just not giving him anything easy because he can make the hard stuff, too. And he did. But we didn’t give him the easy stuff that we did the other day. He’s probably the hardest player we’ve had to guard this year. How aggressive he is every possession, it’s really impressive to watch him play.”

Despite the intense pressure, Fuemmeler still scored a game-high 25 points with three 3-pointers and 8-for-11 shooting from the line.

Cropp said New Franklin’s pressure worked, and he didn’t expect full-court pressure for the entire game.

“New Franklin did a good job with their defensive pressure tonight. They really made it difficult for us. Everything we got tonight we had to work hard for. We got virtually nothing easy, so credit to them on that. They had not picked up the full court for the whole game like they did tonight. We worked on their press and got ready for it. We knew they were going to press at some point. We just really didn’t think it was going to be the whole game.”

It’s no secret that Glasgow is a great shooting team behind the arc. They made 10 long shots in the first half against Slater in the opening round. But on Thursday, Glasgow had to make threes just to stay in the game. The Bulldogs jumped in front early, leaving 16-13 after one quarter. They led by double digits in the second until Ryan Graves connected on a pair of three-point shots. They were two of only three field goals in the period for the Yellowjackets. But Fuemmeler made it to the line enough times to help keep his team close, sinking five of six free throws in the closing minutes of the first half. At the break, New Franklin led 32-26.

The Jackets cut the lead to five points with a bucket by Preston Thies early in the third quarter. New Franklin went back up by seven less than a minute later, and the two teams traded punches for the next six minutes. The Bulldogs got a huge lift to end the third quarter when  Rylan Hundley hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put New Franklin up by 10 with eight minutes to play.

It was the junior’s third triple of the game.

Down 10 points to start the final stanza, the Jackets quickly erased most of the deficit with back-to-back 3-point shots from Jackson Meyer and Graves while allowing just one free throw from New Franklin. Meyer sank another three with 2:54 left in the game to cut New Franklin’s lead to just four points.

Half a minute later, sophomore Caden Schlotzhauer answered with a critical 3-pointer to all but undo Glasgow’s fourth-quarter comeback.

That’s when Fuemmeler went to work. He easily turned a New Franklin turnover into a layup. Moments later, he knocked down his third 3-point shot of the night to bring his team within two points of the lead.

But time was not on Glasgow’s side. Two points can be monumental when the seconds are ticking away, and Glasgow had to put New Franklin on the line to stop the clock. Hundley made the second of two free-throw attempts to make it a 3-point game. Ten seconds later, New Franklin forced a turnover that was recovered by senior Jake Marshall.

Once again, Glasgow sent Hundley to the line to halt the clock. This time, he connected on both shots to make it a two-possession game with 16.5 seconds.

The Yellowjackets made it to their end of the court but couldn’t get the shots to fall. When time expired, New Franklin walked away the winner, 58-53.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump,” Cropp lamented after the game. “We just wanted to get ourselves into our stuff so that we could get the highest percentage to score. We did, for the most part, when we didn’t turn the ball over bringing it up the floor.”

For Glasgow, the loss spelled the end of Fuemmeler’s brilliant career.

“Everybody’s season is going to come to an end in a disappointing fashion, for the most part,” Cropp said. “It’s going to come to an end at some point. You hope it’s later rather than sooner. But I can’t fault any kind of effort or anything. I’ve never had to worry about these guys being on time. I’ve never had to worry about them getting in trouble off the court or at school. And when I could just coach basketball, it makes a world of difference.”

Glasgow bids farewell to six seniors. Three of those six, Fuemmeler, Graves, and Thies, were starters. Colton Sellmeyer, Darden Carmack, and Laken Carmack provided minutes off the bench.

Cropp said Graves stepped into Edris Hamilton’s shoes from last year and helped lead the team to a record of 18 wins against nine losses. “The point-guard position is hard to play, and he stepped in and did a nice job.

“Preston Thies really came along last year and picked it up again this year. He had some really good games for us. He’s a hard worker and a great kid. Colton Sellmeyer is another great kid. He works hard.

Karen and Laken Carmack are probably two of the better kids I’ve ever coached in my life. They didn’t get a ton of playing time, but they always wanted to know what they could do to help.”

As a Class 1 team a year ago, Glasgow had an exciting postseason that led all the way to the state quarterfinals and ended with a fourth-place finish. This year, Cropp and his team moved up to Class 2 and were dropped into one of the toughest districts in the state. District 7 boasts two top-10 teams, No. 7 New Franklin and top-seeded Salisbury, which hopes to repeat as the Class 2 state champion.

“That’s kind of the way it goes. There’s nothing you can do about it. You just have to play who’s in front of you,” Cropp said.

Behind Fuemmeler’s top score of 25 points, Graves posted 14 points with a game-high four 3-point shots. Meyer finished with eight points and two 3-pointers. Thies, Sellmeyer, and defensive specialist Zach Sadler each finished with two points.

New Franklin had three players finish in double figures. Senior Drake Clark, who recently passed 1,000 career points, led the team with 18 points and sank four of six shots from the line. Fellow senior Tanner Bishop added 17 points and sank three shots from the arc. Hundley added 12 with three 3-point shots and 3-for-4 shooting from the line.

Senior Connor Wilmsmeyer finished with six points, four of which came on six free-throw attempts. He played fewer minutes than planned due to some first-half foul trouble. Caden Schlotzhauer added five points off the bench and converted four of six free throws.

Coach Schlotzhauer credited his depth with making a significant difference in Thursday’s semifinal.

“Our bench stands out in this game. And our bench is longer than theirs,” he said. “That really helped us win the game for sure. It’s a big advantage to have kids who will step up and make big plays, and the other team doesn’t know where the next plays are coming from.”

Both New Franklin and Salisbury made it to the finals last year, and Schlotzhauer hopes this time his team will be the one to move on to the state tournament. The Bulldogs fell twice to the Panthers this season. The first time was a two-point decision in New Franklin. Salisbury won the second matchup by 11 in the championship game of the Sturgeon Tournament.

The first-seeded Panthers are 25-2 on the season, their only losses coming at the hands of Class 4 Hallsville. After receiving a first-round bye, Salisbury took down shorthanded Westran 74-51 in the first game of the semifinal round.

Now, the top two seeds are poised for an epic game on Saturday. For the Bulldogs to win the title, they must find a way to limit Salisbury senior Cooper Francis, one of the state’s premier basketball players who leads the team in scoring.

“We’re going to have to game plan for him very similar to Fuemmeler,” said Schlotzhauer. “Whatever plan we come up with, hopefully the boys can execute it on Saturday.”

The championship game kicks off at 2 p.m. in Glasgow. The winner will advance to the sectional round of the Class 2 state tournament against the District 8 winner on Tuesday.