The short-handed Glasgow girls fell 50-41 to fifth-seeded Marceline in the opening round of the 95th Glasgow Tournament on Tuesday night. The fourth-seeded Lady Yellowjackets were without leading scorer Halle Fuemmeler, who sat out the first round with an injury.

Karsyn Massie paced Glasgow with 15 points, followed by Brooklyn Morris with eight.

The Lady Jackets will face eighth-seeded Slater at 4:30 p.m. tonight (Thursday) for a chance to advance to the consolation final at noon on Saturday. Slater fell to four-time reigning tournament champions Cairo 76-26 in the first game of the tournament on Tuesday.

Cairo, the first seed, was scheduled to face Marceline tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the championship semifinal. The winner will play for first place at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The first-seeded Glasgow boys handily won the first game of their own tournament, 63-24, over Marceline on Tuesday in their bid to hoist their title trophy for the first time since winning their third straight championship in 2016. Newly minted Hall of Fame coach Mick Cropp and his Yellowjackets take on fifth-seeded New Franklin tonight (Thursday) at 6 p.m. The winner will advance to the championship at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. The loser will play for third place at 4:30 p.m.

Jackson Meyer scored 27 points to lead his team to the championship side of the bracket. Bronson Foster added 22.

The tournament was scheduled to begin on Monday, but heavy snow pushed back the first two rounds by one day. Now, instead of teams getting a break on Friday, Thursday’s second-round games will be played that day.

New Franklin, the fifth seed, pulled a narrow upset over fourth-seeded Cairo 59-55 in Tuesday’s opener. Jonah Bishop scored 19 points, and Caden Schlotzhauer added 16 to propel the Bulldogs to the championship side of the bracket with the four-point win.

Harrisburg girls escape tournament opener with strong second half

After battling to a two-point separation at halftime, the second-seeded Harrisburg girls outscored Fayette, the seventh seed, by 11 points in the second half to advance to the championship semifinals in the 95th annual Glasgow Basketball Tournament on Wednesday.

The Lady Bulldogs led by as much as nine points in the first quarter, but head coach Jaryt Hunziker said his defense fell asleep at times, allowing the Falcons to make a 9-3 run in the final 2:17 leading up to the break and come within two points at halftime.

“Defense wasn’t the issue. Scoring for us was the issue,” Hunziker said. “Usually, we can hit some shots from outside. We struggled from the arc. We missed some easy shots, and I’m going to chalk that up to coming off a week and a half without a game. Those are things we can correct moving on this week.”

He also credited his opponent. “Fayette, to me, really isn’t a seventh seed. They’re a lot higher than that. It’s just that this tournament is so stacked,” he added.

Fayette entered the tournament after winning its season opener against Class 4 Marshall 57-51 on the road eight days prior. But despite Wednesday’s opening-round loss, Fayette coach Rachel England said her team is right where it needs to be.

“It was the two-versus-seven seed. I’ve been saying that we’re not a seven seed. We really made them fight for the win tonight,” England said. “I thought our girls did everything we needed to do. Offensively, shots didn’t fall from the outside too much tonight. We didn’t look to attack when we probably should have early on.

Defensively, I thought some of our girls stepped up big.”

Harrisburg pulled ahead early, taking a 16-9 lead after one quarter as the Falcons struggled against Harrisburg’s press. “Harrisburg is a long team with long arms. We didn’t use our pass fakes well,” England said. “We were trying to dribble through the trap early on. Our spacing wasn’t where it needed to be. We broke it a couple of times, and they stayed in it. But otherwise, I think we handled it pretty well.”

Fayette rallied in the second quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 4-1 over the first five minutes. Back-to-back threes by sophomore Eastin Hill sparked a 9-3 run over the final minutes of the half.

“It was good for Eastin to step up to the line and good for her to knock down some shots in that second quarter. She was a little quiet tonight, but we expect big things out of her,” England said.

Fayette’s momentum carried briefly into the third quarter, when senior Leah Thies sank a three 24 seconds into the half to give Fayette its only lead of the game, 25-22.

But the Bulldogs regrouped, scoring 26 points in the final two frames to pull ahead with a double-digit win.

Harrisburg seniors Lorelai Hunziker and Audrey Arnold combined for 42 of the team’s 50 points, scoring 24 and 18, respectively.

“I know Lorelai is a little bit frustrated with her outside shooting. But we’re asking her to do a lot. But she’s a gamer. She’ll be ready to go,” Coach Hunziker said. “Audrey is another scoring option. Between her and Lorelai, they’re putting up quite a few points. She got some nice deflections and knocked down some passes.

She got into foul trouble a little early tonight. She picked up a second one in the first quarter. We had to sit her a little bit so she didn’t pick up a third. That kind of took her aggressiveness away.”

For Fayette, Hill led two scorers in double figures with 11 points. Junior point guard Paige Vroman added 10 points with a strong night attacking the basket.

“She does her job very well,” England said about Vroman. “She’s a really quick guard, and she can get up and down the floor. She can break traps pretty well. She’s hard to guard because she’s so small and so quick. I thought she did great tonight. She had a couple of big shots and a couple of attacks that really worked out for her.”

Sophomore Rylan Roberts added eight points, despite feeling a bit under the weather. “Rylan did a good job, especially being sick. She did great on the interior. She did what we asked,” England said.

Harrisburg now advances to the championship semifinal at 7:30 p.m. on Friday against sixth-seeded New Franklin, which upset third-seeded Westran on Wednesday. The winner will advance to the title game at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The loser will play for third place.

Coach Hunziker predicts a physical game on Friday. “[Lily] Chitwood can score in multiple ways. We have to make sure we contain her and make her work for all of her shots. We just have to play Lady Bulldog basketball and do a good job defensively. We have to make some shots and get some stops.”

Fayette will tip off against longtime nemesis Westran at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams faced off four times last year, the first three meetings coming over the first 35 days of the season, with Westran taking three of four. Friday’s winner will play at noon on Saturday for the consolation trophy.

Slow start costs Falcons against physical Harrisburg Bulldogs

Second-seeded Harrisburg led off its Glasgow Tournament title defense with a fast start over seventh-seeded Fayette on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs led by 12 before Fayette even got off a shot in the opening 98 seconds of the game. Harrisburg went on to win 71-56 to advance to the championship semifinals on Friday night.

Despite a difficult start to the season, the Falcons, only in their second year of a rebuilding process after winning just three games a year ago, quickly regrouped and outscored their longtime rival 19-16 in the second quarter to keep the game within reach by halftime.

While never trailing, Harrisburg was unable to put the game away in the second half, despite leading by as much as 20 points twice in the third quarter.

“That’s the mark of an inexperienced team,” said Harrisburg coach Kyle Fisher. “When you get up into that 15 to 16 range, you’d really like to hit them with another 8-0 run and push it up to 24 or 25. We just weren’t able to do that. We just relaxed and let them back in the ball game.”

For the Falcons, opening the season against a perennial powerhouse like Harrisburg makes for a tough start. But coach Brandon Friebe, now in his second year trying to turn around the program, is proud of how his team surrendered.

“We sure didn’t get the start we wanted, but I thought we did a good job of not quitting. We kept coming back even when we got down big later in the game,” he said. “The difference tonight for us was that we didn’t execute well. We didn’t execute on offense at all tonight. We didn’t really accomplish any of the things we wanted to do. We want to play fast, but we don’t want to play out of control. We spent a lot of the night out of control tonight.

“I also have to give these guys a little bit of grace. They’re still really young, and it’s the first game of the year against a really good team with a really good program,” Friebe added. “We’re certainly in a better place than we were a year ago. Our guys have worked really hard and have put a lot of shots up. I thought they played with a little more confidence tonight. Now we have to get back to a place where we’re playing with ourselves instead of falling back into old habits. There were some things to be excited about tonight.”

Fayette junior Colten Cross had a strong performance, scoring 14 of his 22 team-leading points over the second and third quarters as the Falcons worked to stay in the game. He sank a 3-pointer midway through the third quarter to cut Harrisburg’s lead to nine points.

“He’s slowly becoming the player we know he can be,” Friebe said about his starting point guard. “He sees the floor very well, and we’re asking him to do a lot of things that have never been asked of him before. He’s carrying a heavy load, and tonight, for the most part, he did a really good job with that. We’re asking him to run our offense, to be our floor captain, and to be more vocal. He’s really progressing well.”

Cross was one of two Fayette starters in double figures. Athletic sophomore Blake Braden added 10 points, all in the second half. The Falcons also had a spark off the bench from sophomore Morgen Campbell, who added nine points and sank five of six shots from the line.

The Bulldogs finished with three double-digit scorers, led by sophomore Nash Sublett with a game-high 27. Senior Rylee Robinson added 15, and senior point guard Caleb Nichols scored 12, including the first seven points of the game.

“Offensively, it was really encouraging to see Nash and the game he had,” Fisher said. “I thought he had a really, really good game. It was a really nice compliment to Rylee and Caleb. But we have to get some other guys going as well, playing with confidence and being aggressive.”

The Bulldogs are now one win closer to making their third straight championship game appearance of this tournament. They face third-seeded Westran at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the semifinals. The Hornets defeated sixth-seeded Slater 68-59 in Wednesday’s opener to advance to the championship side of the bracket. Harrisburg defeated Westran to claim last year’s tournament title. Friday’s winner will play for the title at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Fayette will now face Slater at 9 p.m. on Friday for a chance to play for a trophy on Saturday. The winner will play for the consolation hardware at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

New Franklin girls upset Westran

The sixth-seeded New Franklin girls outscored third-seeded Westran 34-14 in the middle quarters to score a first-round upset Wednesday night in the 95th annual Glasgow Basketball Tournament.

New Franklin led 8-6 after one quarter, and the two teams stayed even in the second until the Lady Bulldogs went on an 8-2 run over the final four minutes of the first half to create a little breathing room heading into the mid-game break.

But it was the third quarter that was the difference for New Franklin. The Bulldogs scored 11 straight points in just over three minutes, and outpointed the Hornets 20-6 over the eight-minute quarter to take a 42-20 lead into the final stanza.

“It was a fun basketball game. We executed the game plan that we had pretty well. It’s a nice wind to come out with,” said New Franklin coach Parker Gross.

“It felt like it happened really fast. You could feel that momentum coming out of halftime. Coming out in the third quarter and playing well will do you a lot of good in games.”

Senior point guard Lily Chitwood led the charge in the third quarter, scoring the first eight points of the second half. She finished the game with a game-high 25 points, sinking 12 of 14 from the line with three 3-pointers.

“Lily’s a great player, but she also wants what’s best for the team,” Gross said. “It was nice to see some other people knock down some shots and execute. It was a good team effort all around.”

Senior Canna Jennings followed up with eight points, six of which came in the paint. Belle Chitwood added six points, followed by four from senior forward Skylar Shaw and three each from senior Lydia Burnett and Callie Chitwood.

Defensively, New Franklin was stingy under the basket, allowing Westran just two field goals in the second half, one 3-pointer in each of the third and fourth quarters by Kharigan Fuemmeler and Kate Hollman. The Hornets’ remaining 11 second-half points came from the line as Westran was nearly perfect, sinking 11 of 12 free throws over the final two quarters.

The upset sends New Franklin to the championship semifinals against second-seeded Harrisburg on Friday.

“They’re bigger than we are. Probably a little faster and stronger,” Gross said. “You have to execute well in order to have a shot. Hopefully, we come out and do that.”

Harrisburg defeated seventh-seeded Fayette 50-37 in Wednesday’s opening game. Friday’s winner will play for the tournament title at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The loser will play for a third-place trophy at 3 p.m.