The New Franklin girls made easy work of Sturgeon on Friday night, taking down the home team 60-24 to remain in first place in the Central Activities Conference.

Senior Lily Chitwood had another outstanding night, outscoring the entire Sturgeon lineup and posting a double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds, to go along with four steals, five assists, and a block. Fellow senior Lydia Burnett added 16 points and two assists.

“Lydia was shooting the ball well from the outside, which is great to see for us, and Lily was primarily scoring the ball by getting to the basket. It was great to see those two playing well off of each other throughout the game,” said New Franklin coach Parker Gross.

New Franklin held Sturgeon to one point in the opening quarter while scoring 15 and led 30-11 at halftime en route to the lopsided victory.

“Our girls played an all-around good game on Friday. We defended well for most of the game and executed some things well at the offensive end of the floor,” Gross said.

New Franklin was scheduled to play its final home game on Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press. The conference tipoff against Pilot Grove was scheduled for 6 p.m.

New Franklin and Glasgow are tied in conference standings at 7-1 each. The Bulldogs won the last matchup 43-35 on Jan. 13. They play again tonight at Glasgow for the final regular-season game. New Franklin open Class 1 District 9 action on Monday. Seedings were not determined as this newspaper went to press on Tuesday.

In boys’ action, New Franklin went on to complete the sweep, defeating Sturgeon 75-47.

New Franklin shot ahead 21-13 after one quarter and put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring Sturgeon 22-9.

“It was a little bit of a slow start for us, but we really picked it up in the second half,” said New Franklin coach Cory Nicholson. “I was proud of us listening at halftime and making the adjustments we did. We started sharing the ball around more and playing better defense, which led to us pulling away.”

Senior Caden Schlotzhauer, fresh off surpassing 1,000 career points, posted a game-high 26 points, followed by senior Lane Hackman with 17. Sophomore Jonah Bishop added nine, while senior Landon Shaw and sophomore Elyas Brown posted seven apiece.

New Franklin is now 17-7 overall and 7-1 in the Central Activities Conference. The Bulldogs were set to finish off the regular season with two CAC contests. On Tuesday, after the Advertiser had gone to press, they were scheduled to host Pilot Grove (15-9) for Pink Out Night. Tonight (Wednesday), they travel to Glasgow. New Franklin lost to the Yellowjackets in the first matchup, 48-43, on Jan. 13. Glasgow currently leads the CAC with a perfect 8-0 record.

Both teams enter their respective district tournaments this week. Glasgow hosts the Class 2 District 7 Tournament as the second seed and takes on seventh-seeded Fayette at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. New Franklin travels to Tipton as the top seed in District 8. The Bulldogs have a first-round bye and will face the winner between the fourth and fifth seeds on Wednesday, Feb. 25.

See bracket below.