The top-seeded New Franklin girls took a double-digit lead on a 16-point run over a five-minute period across the first and second quarters, but couldn’t withstand the defensive onslaught from third-seeded Westran to lose the New Franklin Tournament championship 45-35 on Friday night.

The result marked the Lady Hornets’ third straight New Franklin Tournament championship, and the second time in a row defeating the host team for the title.

The game was just five weeks after the Lady Bulldogs earned an 18-point decision over Westran in the first round of the Glasgow Tournament. But New Franklin coach Parker Gross knew Friday’s championship game would be anything but a repeat.

“We didn’t expect it to be the same game. We know they’re not a ball club that would lose to us by 20 very frequently,” he said. “They’ve got some good athletes and some good players. We’ve played some tough matchups with them over the last couple of years, with a lot of the same players on both sides. We knew it was going to be a battle.”

The two teams have a long history together, playing 12 times since January 2018. During that stretch, New Franklin has won seven of those matchups. But Westran has had the upper hand the last two seasons, defeating New Franklin in the championship game of the Bulldogs’ own tournament both times.

Westran entered Friday’s game with a clear game plan: limit touches by New Franklin senior Lily Chitwood, who consistently scores more than 20 points a game.

The plan worked. Chitwood was held to six points, a 3-pointer in the first quarter and three free throws in the fourth, as she faced a defensive double-team every time she held the ball.

“They played pretty well out of their zone,” Gross said. “They threw two defenders at her a lot, getting it out of her hands. Early, it felt like we moved the ball out of that pretty well and found some other players and some different spots and went on a little run to build a lead. Then, we let their pressure get to us over the course of the second quarter and third quarter. We have to handle that better.”

With Lily Chitwood mired in Westran’s stingy defense, it was up to senior Lydia Burnett to do the heavy lifting. She caught fire from the perimeter, netting four 3-pointers to lead the Bulldogs with 12 points. Two of those long shots came in the fourth quarter to keep New Franklin in the game.

Junior Callie Chitwood provided a spark in the first half that caught the Westran defense off guard. She hit three straight jumpers from the left side to spur a 16-point run that put the Bulldogs in front 16-3 early in the second quarter. She finished the night with eight total points.

“I thought we were handling the pressure really well, and we needed to keep doing that and playing disciplined,” Gross recalled. “They were just as aggressive in that portion of the game as they were later. We just handled it a little bit better. And we knocked down shots.”

Westran answered with 11 points to end the second quarter and opened the second half with five straight points to take a lead the Hornets would never surrender.

“I thought turnovers gave them some momentum,” said Gross. “We got stuck in a couple of spots and gave them opportunities on the run where we weren’t able to get down and defend. They also just knocked down a couple of shots.”

New Franklin struggled to contain Westran senior Kate Hollmann, who dominated the paint and scored 11 of her game-high 17 points in the second half.

“She played a great game,” said Gross. “If she catches it in there, she’s making an aggressive move to the basket. She’s pretty hard to guard. They did a better job tonight of putting her in that position. We did a lot better job last time around of keeping her from getting the ball. We didn’t do well enough tonight.”

Fellow Westran senior Kharigan Fuemmeler scored five of her 11 total points in the final 90 seconds of the third quarter to give her team a seven-point cushion heading into the final period. Sophomore Kalynn Carroll added 14 points, connecting on five of six free-throw attempts in the final 1:39 to hold on to the win.

New Franklin doesn’t have much time to regroup. On Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press, the Bulldogs hosted conference rival Glasgow, fresh off a third-place finish in the Salisbury Tournament, for a Central Activities Conference matchup. On Friday, they travel to Pilot Grove for a 6 p.m. tipoff.