A fast start in the opening quarter wasn’t enough for the Fayette boys to overcome area powerhouse New Franklin in Tuesday’s home debut, falling 67-43 in a non-conference rivalry in Fayette.

The Falcons jumped out to a 20-14 lead after eight minutes against a team that finished runner-up in the Glasgow Tournament just three days prior.

That weeklong gauntlet may have had residual effects on the Bulldogs, who played three games in six days, including a double overtime barnburner against the first-seeded home team on Thursday. New Franklin coach Cory Nicholson admitted the grueling schedule may have contributed to his team’s slow start.

“We played three tough games in that tournament last week, and then to come in here and play a rival, that’s tough to do,” Nicholson said. “That tournament is a grind. We are pretty worn out still. So it was good to see the second half bounce back. The first half was pretty sloppy.”

The Falcons were eliminated from the tournament on Friday with a heartbreaking loss to Slater in overtime to begin the season 0-2. Coach Brandon Friebe, now in his second year trying to rebuild the program, was excited by his team’s performance in the first two quarters, despite falling behind 27-24 at the mid-game break.

“I felt like we had a great game plan. Our goal was to actually slow things down a little bit. We’ve struggled to take care of the basketball, so we wanted to be a little more intentional on offense,” Friebe explained. “I felt like we did a good job of keeping them off balance, switching back and forth from our own pressure to our man-to-man defense. In the first half, I thought we did a really good job.”

With 11 combined lead changes and ties, the Falcons pulled ahead with a shot by sophomore Blake Braden midway through the first quarter and held the lead through the end of the period by outscoring the Bulldogs 7-5 to finish ahead 20-16.

A 3-point shot by New Franklin sophomore Jonah Bishop sparked a nine-point spurt in which the Bulldogs took the lead for good, and went into halftime up three points, 27-24.

Friebe said he knew whichever team won the first four minutes of the third quarter would likely win the game. Fayette scored five points, but New Franklin banked 10 in on the way to outscoring the Falcons 21-10 over the third period.

“Cory is a great coach. We knew he was going to make adjustments at halftime. We knew if they won the first four minutes of the second half, they were going to win the game. We did not do a very good job of executing coming out of halftime. We got away from the game plan and tried to speed things up. And we panicked.”

Fayette struggled against New Franklin’s zone defense in the second half, often with ball handlers getting trapped in the corner. Friebe said those plays are designed that way, but require his players to make quicker decisions to beat the defense, and said his team just didn’t execute.

“It was really a difference of two halves. In the first half, we did things well. In the second half, we didn’t,” Friebe said. “I think their zone was a great coaching decision because we didn’t adjust very well. Turnovers continue to haunt us. We’re playing good defensive teams, but we’re making things really easy on them because we’re throwing things away. We’re not being very secure with the basketball.”

New Franklin continued to excel in the fourth quarter, running away with the game by outscoring Fayette 19-7.

“I thought our defensive trap worked pretty well. We got a lot of steals. We just couldn’t execute our offense in the first half,” Nicholson said. “In the second half, we started taking better looks, getting downhill and kicking out to our shooters. That opened up the rest of the floor. And that’s the type of basketball we like to play. I told the boys coming in that when we start winning games now we’re going to get everyone’s best. With wins comes a target on your back. We definitely got that tonight. Fayette, especially in the first half, played great. They came out and kicked our butts in the first quarter.”

Fayette junior Colten Cross paced the team with 15 points, followed by senior forward Payton Oeth with 14.

Fayette, now 0-3 on the season, gets a week to prepare for longtime former conference rival Westran as the Falcons play their second of only seven home games on Tuesday. The Hornets are 5-0 after defeating New Franklin for the Glasgow Tournament championship on Saturday.

“That’ll be another tough challenge,” Friebe admitted. “We don’t have time to rest. We have a lot of stuff we need to get tightened up.”

New Franklin senior Caden Schlotzhauer led all scorers with 24 points as four Bulldogs finished in double figures. Sophomore Noah Hackman added 13 points. Older brother Lane Hackman, a senior, scored 12 with a pair of 3-pointers and went 2-for-2 from the line. Bishop rounded out New Franklin’s top scorers with 11 points with a pair of threes.

New Franklin, now 5-1 overall, will play its first home game of the season on Friday in throwback fashion against Madison (0-5) in the old gym.