The Harrisburg girls evened their record against New Franklin on Monday night, beating the home team 41-34. 

The teams last met in the third-place game of the Glasgow Tournament on Dec. 2, when New Franklin won a lopsided victory 52-26. Monday’s victory marks a 33-point turnaround for Harrisburg after falling in the Glasgow tournament 16 days prior.

“We had a hell of a two-and-a-half week stretch of practices where I kind of flipped the switch on them, and I had to dig deep down in my bag of tricks,” said Harrisburg coach Ryan Richardson. “That was a much-needed win for them, probably even more so for me as a coach because we went through hell and back to get where we want to be right now.”

After trading jabs in a 7-6 first quarter, Harrisburg found its stride with a seven-point run through the first half of the second period. 

New Franklin was held to just four points in the second period as the Lady Bulldogs traded open looks from the arc for options in the paint. 

New Franklin Is a team that is known for its outside shooting. But struggling to score from the inside meant the Lady Bulldogs trailed 17-11 at the break.

“We felt like we could get some decent matchups inside with Skylar [Shaw],” said New Franklin coach Parker Gross. “And I thought she did some things well at times. But we forced some that led to some turnovers that we didn’t really need when we could have been a lot more patient. And that’s some of the execution at the offensive end that for sure could have been better.”

Harrisburg expanded its lead to double digits in the third quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers from freshman Brette Ackman. 

New Franklin answered with a pair of 3-point shots from sophomore sharpshooters Lily Chitwood and Lydia Burnett to cut the lead to six.

Heading into the final frame, Harrisburg held an eight-point advantage. An early 3-point bucket by sophomore Jaidyn Stephenson made it an 11-point game with 7:28 left in the game.

New Franklin clawed back and came as close as four points with two minutes left. But powerful Harrisburg senior Emma Fischer spread the lead back out to six with a layup with under two minutes to play.

Another three from Burnett cut the deficit to five points with 41 seconds left. It would be New Franklin’s final basket of the night as Harrisburg worked the clock and walked out with a 41-34 win.

“We changed up some things a little bit late, trying to create a little bit more pressure and clawed back a little bit, but dug ourselves a hole, making some little mistakes here and there that just added up,” Gross said. “A frustrating loss in the end that we would like to have executed a little bit better.” 

Although a loss, New Franklin still finished with the game’s highest scorer. Chitwood posted a game-high 19 points with two 3-point baskets and 5-for-7 shooting from the line. Burnett finished with nine points, all from the arc, and Shaw posted six points.

Harrisburg spread the scoring out to six players. Fischer led her team with 11 hard-earned points, nine of which came in the first half. Behind her was Ackman with eight points, including two 3-pointers in the third quarter.

Stephenson added seven points with a 3-pointer and finished with perfect 4-for-4 shooting from the free-throw line.

Harrisburg was down a critical starter Monday as senior Abby Rosson was sidelined with illness. But the Lady Bulldogs got a boost from an unexpected source, Poppy Spry. The sophomore suited up for the first time this season after sitting out her freshman year.

“She’s a game changer for us. She’s a natural talent,” Richardson said. “It’s taking a while to get some of the rust off after missing a year, but what a performance by her tonight.”

Spry finished with seven points, six of which came during Harrisburg’s 11-4 second-quarter run.

“It was a gutsy performance, her best performance of the year so far. We knew her absence when she wasn’t in there, so we had to find ways to get her back in,” said Richardson.

Harrisburg returns to the hardwood on Dec. 30 with a neutral court showdown against Van Far at the MACC Shootout in Moberly. The Lady Bulldogs return to Lewis & Clark action with a long road trip to Scotland County on Jan. 5. They then turn around and play a 10 a.m. game the following day against North Shelby at Mizzou Arena in the Sophie Cunningham Classic.

New Franklin is also off until Dec. 30. The Lady Bulldogs enter their own tournament as the fourth seed and will take on fifth-seeded Community at 2 p.m. 

A win would advance them to the championship semifinals, likely against top-seeded Fayette. It would be the third bout in 12 games against the Lady Falcons.

The two teams are 1-1. New Franklin won the first game in the opening round of the Glasgow Tournament, 54-49. But Fayette rebounded to defeat the Lady Bulldogs on their own court 42-29 on Dec. 5.

“Anytime you split with a team, you look forward to the third match up and having a chance to go out and compete again against a team that you know you can play well against and do some things well and come out with a win,” Gross said. “And I think Coach Betts would be looking forward to the rematch, too.”