An inexplicable “jump ball” call with three seconds left on the clock in Wednesday night’s boys’ semifinal game may have cost fourth-seeded New Franklin a chance at playing for the Glasgow Tournament title. The call came as New Franklin pulled down a defensive rebound while holding a two-point lead over top-seeded Westran.

A Westran player seemed to try to foul the Bulldog rebounder to stop the clock, but a referee instead called a jump ball. The possession arrow gave the Hornets the ball out of bounds below their own basket.

Westran threw the ball into Langden Kitchen, the Hornets’ 6’7, 250-lb. center, who sunk the basket to send the game into overtime.

The turn of events stung the Bulldogs, who were outscored 9-5 in the four-minute overtime period to lose 63-59.

The loss drops New Franklin to 3-1 overall and sends the Bulldogs to the third-place game on Saturday.

“Tonight’s game was a slugfest that was very back and forth,” said New Franklin coach Jim Schlotzhauer. “I wouldn’t say it was the prettiest game that I’ve ever seen, but certainly, it was hard-nosed. Westran is a big, physical team that really wore us down as the game went along.”

The Bulldogs jumped ahead early to lead 19-9 after the first quarter. But Westran chipped away over the next two quarters. That double-digit lead dwindled to 27-22 at halftime and 41-39 entering the fourth quarter. 

New Franklin appeared to have emerged the winner of a back-and-forth final period, taking a 54-52 lead with three seconds left. That was until the head-scratching call that changed everything.

Westran took its first lead of the fourth quarter with 1:37 remaining in regulation on a 3-pointer by Ashden Dale to go up 52-50. But New Franklin regained the lead when junior Owen Curry stole the ball at halfcourt and scored the go-ahead layup with 23 seconds left to play. The basket put the Bulldogs in front 53-52. Junior Tanner Bishop then made it a two-point game when he hit the second of two free-throw tries with 14.1 seconds left on the clock.

New Franklin entered the overtime period without junior Drake Clark, who committed his fifth foul in the fourth quarter. And senior Clayton Wilmsmeyer left the game for the same reason in overtime.

Westran took advantage of its second chance. The Hornets quickly built a three-point lead that stretched to five points with a 7-2 run over nearly the entire extra period. The Bulldogs were held to just two field goals and a free throw in the extra four minutes.

Kitchen dominated the paint under the basket all night. A significant number of his game-high 32 points came on second-chance attempts as he gobbled up rebound after rebound.

“When we see them again, we will have to rebound better than we did last night,” Schlotzhauer said. “We really had trouble keeping them off the boards on the offensive end. That led to way too many easy looks around the basket.”

Bishop paced three New Franklin double-digit scorers with 15 points on the night. Senior Owen Armentrout finished with 14, and junior Connor Wilmsmeyer dropped in 12 points. Curry finished with eight points.

Westran did a solid number on New Franklin’s two leading scorers. Drake was held to two points on the night, while Clayton Wilmsmeyer finished with four.

Schlotzhauer said that despite the loss, he was happy with how his players stepped up. “We had our top two scorers on the bench for a lot of the game, and we still had a chance to win. That says a lot about who we can be as a team.”

The overtime win sends Westran to the championship game to face the winner of Thursday’s semifinal game between sixth-seeded Fayette and second-seeded Cairo. Tip-off for the title game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

New Franklin will play the loser of Thursday’s semifinal at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday for third place.