When the dust settled on a Battle of the Bulldogs on Wednesday, Jan. 21, the hosts New Franklin had the last bark in a doubleheader sweep of Harrisburg, as heard on KMMO.

New Franklin’s boys capped the evening with a workmanlike, 51-40 victory over Harrisburg. That came right after the CAC school also claimed the girls’ matchup, winning 48-46 in thrilling, come-from-behind fashion.

The girls’ contest saw New Franklin’s only lead of the second half come courtesy of their game-winning basket at the buzzer. They trailed nearly all evening, but were always close enough to Harrisburg to be a threat to them. New Franklin was behind 20-14 at the half and later found themselves down, 40-32 during the second half.

The home team climbed to within three, 46-43 with 10 seconds left but saw Harrisburg at the charity stripe, shooting two times to try and ice the contest. However, both free throws were missed and New Franklin got the ball down floor with Lily Chitwood firing up a three-pointer to tie the score at 46 with four seconds remaining. Harrisburg then turned the ball over on the in-bounds pass, giving New Franklin possession again under their own bucket. The ball went to Lily Chitwood again as her toss toward the basket was deflected into the hands of Skylar Shaw who grabbed it and threw it in as the horn sounded handing New Franklin a 48-46 victory.

The win avenged a 62-43 loss that New Franklin suffered to Harrisburg back in early December in the semifinals of the Glasgow Tournament. Now 14-2 on the year, the home team was paced by Lily Chitwood’s 15 points while Skyler Shaw tallied 12 and Canna Jennings chipped in with 10. Harrisburg dropped to 11-4 overall with Lorelai Hunziker tallying 24 points in a losing cause.

The boys’ matchup saw New Franklin lead the visitors from wire to wire, owing a 10-4 advantage after one period and then 29-17 at intermission. Twice New Franklin was ahead by 15 points only to see Harrisburg cut the margin down to single digits before time ran out on them in a 51-40 loss.

Improving to 12-4 for the season, Caden Schlotzhauer scored 11 points for the winners as Lane Hackman and Noah Hackman both added 10 and Jonah Bishop tossed in nine. Falling to 5-10 overall, Harrisburg was led by 11 points from Rylee Robinson with Caleb Nichols and Evan Freeman providing 10 tallies each.