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There are wins and then there is last night’s game against the Sturgeon Bulldogs in CAC action at New Franklin.
Having lost two the Lady Bulldogs twice, once in the championship in the New Franklin Invitational Tournament and once on the road in league play, New Franklin coach Chris McGowan had to be thinking that the third time was a charm last night.
He was right. After trailing by three at the half, the Lady Bulldogs caught fire offensively while outscoring Sturgeon 24-15 in the second half en route to a 44-38 victory.
As for the New Franklin boys, they had a great start while leading state-ranked Sturgeon 10-6 at the 3:09 mark in the first quarter. However it was pretty much all Sturgeon after that as the Bulldogs used both their speed and size to outscore New Franklin 57-30 for the rest of the game for a convincing 63-40 victory.
New Franklin coach Chris McGowan said this was a fantastic win for our program.
“We had a lot of players step up and give us contributions when we needed a spark,” McGowan said. “Defensively, I really thought we communicated well all night and rebounded pretty well after the first quarter. Offensively, we went on a run about midway through the third and were able to continue the momentum into the fourth. Amanda and Kalani each hit two big free throws down the stretch to preserve the win for us. Hopefully, we will use this game as a springboard and finish the year strong.”
It couldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. While the win improved New Franklin’s record to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in the CAC, McGowan was probably fearing the worst at about the 5:15 mark in the second quarter as Sturgeon upped its lead to six at 18-12 after reeling off 10 straight points. Of course it didn’t help that New Franklin opened the second period with four straight turnovers.
As for the first quarter, New Franklin and Sturgeon played to four ties at 2-2, 4-4, 6-6 and 8-8. Meanwhile, in the final minute and 54 seconds, New Franklin scored on back-to-back baskets by Jasmyne Boggs and Aly Hundley to go up by four at 12-8.
Meanwhile, after the horrible start in the second period, New Franklin again went from trailing by seven at 23-16 with 1:33 left in the half with a basket by freshman Aislinn Himmelberg and two free throws by Emily Hendrix to cut the lead to three at 23-20.
There are wins and then there is last night’s game against the Sturgeon Bulldogs in CAC action at New Franklin.
Having lost two the Lady Bulldogs twice, once in the championship in the New Franklin Invitational Tournament and once on the road in league play, New Franklin coach Chris McGowan had to be thinking that the third time was a charm last night.
He was right. After trailing by three at the half, the Lady Bulldogs caught fire offensively while outscoring Sturgeon 24-15 in the second half en route to a 44-38 victory.
As for the New Franklin boys, they had a great start while leading state-ranked Sturgeon 10-6 at the 3:09 mark in the first quarter. However it was pretty much all Sturgeon after that as the Bulldogs used both their speed and size to outscore New Franklin 57-30 for the rest of the game for a convincing 63-40 victory.
New Franklin coach Chris McGowan said this was a fantastic win for our program.
“We had a lot of players step up and give us contributions when we needed a spark,” McGowan said. “Defensively, I really thought we communicated well all night and rebounded pretty well after the first quarter. Offensively, we went on a run about midway through the third and were able to continue the momentum into the fourth. Amanda and Kalani each hit two big free throws down the stretch to preserve the win for us. Hopefully, we will use this game as a springboard and finish the year strong.”
It couldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. While the win improved New Franklin’s record to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in the CAC, McGowan was probably fearing the worst at about the 5:15 mark in the second quarter as Sturgeon upped its lead to six at 18-12 after reeling off 10 straight points. Of course it didn’t help that New Franklin opened the second period with four straight turnovers.
As for the first quarter, New Franklin and Sturgeon played to four ties at 2-2, 4-4, 6-6 and 8-8. Meanwhile, in the final minute and 54 seconds, New Franklin scored on back-to-back baskets by Jasmyne Boggs and Aly Hundley to go up by four at 12-8.
Meanwhile, after the horrible start in the second period, New Franklin again went from trailing by seven at 23-16 with 1:33 left in the half with a basket by freshman Aislinn Himmelberg and two free throws by Emily Hendrix to cut the lead to three at 23-20.
The second half was just as close as the first, with Sturgeon leading 30-27 at the 1:13 mark only to have New Franklin closeout the quarter with six straight points on back-to-back-to-back baskets by Boggs and Hundley to lead by a score of 33-30.
Boggs took over the game after that for the Lady Bulldogs by scoring the first-four points in the fourth quarter to make it 37-30. Then, after Sturgeon cut the lead to two at 39-37 with 2:16 remaining, Himmelberg came back and hit 1 of 2 foul shots while senior Amanda Cook knocked down two foul shots after an intentional foul to extend the lead to five at 42-37.
Sturgeon never got any closer than four points as New Franklin closed out the game with two shots from the line for the six-point victory.
Jasmyne Boggs led the scoring attack in the game for New Franklin with 12 points along with eight rebounds and three steals.
Aly Hundley finished the game with nine points, four rebounds, two steals and two assists, while Kalani Pihana added nine points, three rebounds and two assists, Aislinn Himmelberg with eight points, three steals, two rebounds and one assist, Emily Hendrix with four points, three rebounds, one steal and one assist, Amanda Cook with two points, three rebounds and one assist and Madi Lyons with two rebounds and two assists.
For Sturgeon, Brigett Arends had 10 points and Krissy Arends nine.
In the JV game, Sturgeon defeated New Franklin 16-11.
New Franklin led Sturgeon 9-1 at the half but was outscored 15-2 in the final-two periods to suffer the loss.
Derian Dodson and Abagail Prewitt each had four points in the game for New Franklin. Sara Montgomery chipped in two points while Brittany Anderson added one.
As for the New Franklin boys basketball team, they hung in with one of the best teams in the state in Class 2 for the first-five minutes. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they had no answer for Spencer Kelly, who had 13 points, and Lane Arends and Trenton Kalinowski with 12 points each for the rest of the game.
Of course it didn’t help that Sturgeon reeled off 11 straight points over the final two minutes and 55 seconds to lead New Franklin 17-10 after one. Sturgeon also went on a 10-0 run during a two minute span in the fourth quarter to extend its lead over the Bulldogs to 19 points at 35-16.
The second half was a carbon copy of the first-two periods as Sturgeon held a 17-13 advantage in the third and a 11-9 scoring edge in the fourth to win the game by 23.
While the loss dropped New Franklin to 7-11 on the season, head coach Jim Schlotzhauer said this was a disappointing game for the Bulldogs.
“We started out 10-10 but then Sturgeon went on a run that we couldn’t get stopped,” Schlotzhauer said. “At times we were stagnant offensively and took too many possessions off defensively. A team like Sturgeon will really make you pay for lapses like these. Hopefully, we use this as motivation to practice hard and get better.”
Tyler White had the game-high for New Franklin with 18 points. Tanner White chipped in 13, Tyler Hull four, Dalton Welbern three and Alex Holem with two.
