The New Franklin boys’ and girls’ teams both took home third-place trophies after decisive wins during the Sturgeon Tournament on Saturday. The girls defeated the host team 69-44, while the boys took down South Callaway 71-55.

Girls

New Franklin 69

Sturgeon 44

The Lady Bulldogs are now 14-6 overall, with top-three finishes this year in three tournaments. They placed second in the Glasgow Tournament in November and their own tournament in early January.

“It was an awesome win for us and a great third-place trophy,” said New Franklin coach Morgan Grosse after Saturday’s win.

New Franklin shot out to an 18-12 lead after one quarter and took a 36-23 lead into halftime.

“All quarters looked awesome on both ends of the floor, but especially offensively,” Grosse said. “We stayed consistent, poised, and finished the game strong.”

The Lady Bulldogs would go on to win the second half 33-21. Freshman Lily Chitwood finished with a game-high 25 points, with three 3-points and 4-for-4 shooting from the line. Sophomore KeBrea Fair added 14 points, followed by seniors Carly Dorson with 13 and Kelsi Fair with 10.

Brooklynn Dougherty finished with 10 points as Sturgeon’s only double-digit scorer.

In the first round of the tournament, the Lady Bulldogs cruised past Paris 48-31 before losing narrowly to District 7 foe Salisbury 45-42 in the semifinal.

New Franklin is now 14-6 overall heading into the final stretch of the season. The Lady Bulldogs travel to face Northeast in Cairo tonight (Wednesday). The 16-2 Lady Bearcats have defeated New Franklin in the last 10 meetings dating back to 2014.

Boys

South Callaway 55

New Franklin 71

The Bulldogs boasted four players in double figures with a 71-55 win over South Callaway to claim the third-place trophy in the Sturgeon Tournament on Saturday.

Junior Tanner Bishop led the team with 18 points, followed by senior Owen Armentrout with 11, and brothers Clayton and Connor Wilmsmeyer with 10 each. Juniors Drake Clark added nine points, and Jake Marshall had five.

New Franklin jumped out to a 10-12 lead after one quarter and pulled ahead 33-26 at halftime. The Bulldogs broke the game wide open in the second half, outscoring South Callaway 21-12 in the third quarter and 20-15 in the fourth.

“South Callaway was a very hard team to guard,” said New Franklin coach Jim Schlotzhauer. “Their style makes you cover the entire floor, with shooters everywhere. We really did a nice job for the most part, with a few lapses in communication and missing some box-outs that led to scores.”

Schlotzhauer said he was proud of how his team came back following a loss to district rival Salisbury, 56-49, in the semifinals on Thursday. 

“The way that the boys responded to a loss is exactly what you want to see as a coach,” he said. “You could tell that we didn’t have our legs back yet, so I thought our bench did a great job of coming in and out of the game and providing some energy for us. Our offense looked a lot better with more movement and better movement of the ball.”

Thursday’s loss was only the second of the season for New Franklin. The Bulldogs bested Salisbury 89-81 in overtime in the second game of the season on November 22.

New Franklin’s only other loss came at the hands of Westran in overtime during the semifinals of the Glasgow Tournament in November. The Bulldogs returned the favor by defeating the Hornets by 14 points in the championship game of the New Franklin Tournament on January 7.

New Franklin is now ranked fifth in Class 2 as of the latest rankings by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association. Salisbury is eighth, and Westran is ninth, setting up what is sure to be an epic Class 2 District 7 Tournament showdown starting beginning February 20.