The New Franklin Lady Bulldogs basketball team opened the 2008-09 season in convincing fashion last night in the opening round of the Glasgow Invitational Tournament by beating eighth-seeded Keytesville 55-23.
The Lady Bulldogs, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, outscored Keytesville 50-18 in the first-three quarters before matching the Tigers with five points in the final period for a 55-23 victory.
Whatever Coach Dorson did, it worked. While leading 14-5 at the end of the first quarter, New Franklin came out and outscored Keytesville 17-9 in the second period to lead at the half by a score of 31-14. Meanwhile, in the third quarter, the Lady Bulldogs broke the game wide open by outscoring the Tigers 19-4 to extend the lead to 32 at 50-18. Keytesville never got any closer as New Franklin matched the Tigers with five points in the final period.
Kelsea McClellan led the scoring attack in the game for New Franklin with 21 points along with five steals.
For Keytesville, Megan Schupback tossed in 10 points.
In other games last night in the tournament, the top-seeded Glasgow boys defeated eighth-seeded Slater 77-25 while the Westran girls beat Slater by a score of 56-41. Meanwhile, in the final game last night, Keytesville won with no time on the clock by hitting two free throws to beat Fayette 65-64.
Tournament action will continue tonight, with the Cairo girls playing Fayette at 4:30 p.m., followed by the Westran boys versus Cairo at 6, Harrisburg girls versus Glasgow at 7:30 and Harrisburg boys versus New Franklin at 9.
As for other games last night, the Glasgow boys outscored Slater in each of the four quarters of play to win the game by 52.
The Yellowjackets, 1-0 on the season, led Slater 43-17 at the half and 73-22 after three quarters of play before outscoring the Wildcats 4-3 in the final period.
Senior Jay Lee finished the game with a double-double for Glasgow with 31 points and 11 steals. He also had five rebounds and five assists.
For Slater, Jacob Brumit tossed in eight points.
As for the Westran girls, they led Slater 19-9 after one, 32-24 at the half and 41-36 after three quarters of play before outscoring the Wildcats 15-5 in the final period.
Becca Schemmer had 28 points and Rachel Richards 14 for Westran.
Slater was led by Rachel Gonzalez with 18 and Nikki Kruger with 12.
The final game last night between Keytesville and Fayette, the No. 4 and 5 seed, proved to be just as close on the scoreboard with the Tigers lead 30-29 at the half. Meanwhile, after Keytesville outscored Fayette 22-8 in the third quarter to go up by 15 at 52-37, the Falcons rallied back with a 27-13 advantage in the final period only to lose the game by one.
Kendall Littleton led three players in double figures for Keytesville with 18 points.
For Fayette, Xavier Crump had 13.
Read Tuesday's Boonville Daily News for the rest of the story.
