The New Franklin boys will play in defense of their title against familiar tournament rival Westran on Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the New Franklin Tournament. This year marks the third in a row the two have faced one another for the title.

The top-seeded Bulldogs roared back into the title game after handily dispatching eighth-seeded Fayette 88-34 on Tuesday night and then cruised past fifth-seeded Sturgeon 66-37 in the semifinals on Thursday.

Westran earned another shot at the title for the fourth straight season after taking down seventh-seeded Wellsville-Middletown 72-34 in the opening round and Bunceton/Prairie Home 63-54 in the championship semifinal on Thursday.

New Franklin is now 10-1 on the season. The sixth-ranked Bulldogs’ only loss came at the hands of defending state champs and second-ranked Salisbury by just two points on Nov. 21. Since then, New Franklin has won nine straight games and a tournament championship in Glasgow.

New Franklin easily slid past Sturgeon on Thursday despite an uncharacteristically slow start. Bulldogs coach Jim Schlotzhauer said Sturgeon was patient on offense, and his team defensively didn’t execute quite as planned.

New Franklin led just 10-6 after one quarter but erupted with 22 points in the second to go into halftime up 35-12.

“I think we picked it up in the second quarter, especially defensively, and that led to some easier baskets for us,” Schlotzhauer said. “We usually rely on transition. So, getting some of those helped to inflate the score.”

The second half was largely homogenous, as New Franklin continued to pull away for its second lopsided win of the tournament.

Bulldogs senior Drake Clark led all scorers with 24 points, followed by classmates Tanner Bishop with 11 and Connor Wilmsmeyer with 10.

The Bulldogs now find themselves in familiar territory, battling area rival Westran in a tournament championship. Saturday’s final will be the 18^th in a string of consecutive tournament meetings between the two teams dating back to February 2015. The Bulldogs have won 12 of those 18 games, including the last two, the first of which was a five-point decision in the New Franklin Tournament a year ago.

For the last four years, the tournament has been won by either New Franklin or Westran. Now, the Bulldogs hope to win their second straight.

“It’s always fun to play in your tournament for a championship. And to win that is always special and something you’ll always remember,” Schlotzhauer said.

Westran’s road to the championship was not as easy as New Franklin’s. Despite a quick opening defeat of the seventh-seed on Tuesday, they faced tighter opposition in Thursday’s semifinal. Tied 12-12 after one quarter, Westran trailed by one point at halftime. Adjustments in the break clearly paid off, and Westran won the second half by 10 points to win 63-54.

Senior Trent Brandon led all scorers for the day with 26 points to lead his team back to the championship.

Westran is 10-2 overall this season. One of those losses came against New Franklin in the championship semifinals of the Glasgow Tournament last month. The other was a lopsided loss at Glasgow on Dec. 7. Since then, the Hornets have won six straight games.

Tipoff on Saturday is slated for 2 p.m. in the new gym.