In the first game after a grueling Glasgow Tournament that ended three days prior, New Franklin and Fayette showed the wear and tear from the week before with a rambling non-conference matchup Tuesday night. After the Falcons took a one-point lead after the first quarter, New Franklin seized control to spoil Fayette’s home opener 44-29.

“Everybody is tired from last week. And we’re in the last two weeks of the semester as far as school goes,” said New Franklin coach Parker Gross. “It was low scoring. It was a pretty physical, but ugly game on both sides of it.”

New Franklin is fresh off a third-place finish in last week’s tournament after scoring two upsets as the third seed. Fayette bowed out after two losses, but won its season opener at Class 4 Marshal on Nov. 25.

Fayette scored just two points in the second quarter to go into the locker room down 15-8 at halftime. But the Falcons caught back up in the second half thanks to a nine-point run from the arc, with junior Paige Vroman bookending threes around a triple by sophomore Eastin Hill to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to four points.

“Offensively, we didn’t have a lot of movement, but we picked it up in the second half,” said Fayette coach Rachel England. “Our defense was still right there. We did a good job of defending the post in the third quarter. Defensively, I felt like this was honestly our best game.”

New Franklin finished off the third quarter with a 7-2 run and opened the final period outscoring Fayette 8-2 in the opening minutes to run away with the game.

Almost half of Fayette’s scoring came from the perimeter as the Falcons struggled on the inside against New Franklin forwards Skylar Shaw and Canna Jennings. All four of Fayette’s threes came in the second half, but not enough found their mark for Fayette to come out ahead in the home debut.

“They are pretty big on the inside,” England said. “We’re more athletic than we are stout. We had every opportunity in the first half to get it in the inside, we just didn’t take advantage of those opportunities.”

Coach Gross credits Shaw’s game in the paint on both ends of the floor. She scored eight of her team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter.

“Skyler had a really good game for us. She had some big rebounds and finished down low for us really well,” Gross said.

Bulldogs’ senior Lily Chitwood finished the night with 12 points, which England said was a highlight of Fayette’s defense.

“We held Lily to 12 points. She’s a scorer who can go out and score 20 points every night,” she said. “Defensively, we were right there; we just had some shots that didn’t fall.”

Senior Lydia Burnett added eight points with two 3-pointers for New Franklin, followed by Jennings with four points.

For Fayette, Paige Vroman paced the team with 14 points with three baskets from the arc. Sophomore Rylan Roberts added six points, and Hill finished with five and a 3-pointer. Senior Browyn Eubanks and sophomore Kennady Vroman added two points each.

Fayette gets a week off before hosting their second of just seven home games this season next Tuesday, Nov. 16, against longtime rival Westran. The Falcons and Hornets faced off four times last season, with Westran winning three of those. The two teams have already played once this year. Westran dispatched Fayette from the Glasgow tournament with a 20-point win in the consolation semifinals before losing to the home team in the fifth-place game.

Meanwhile, New Franklin debuts at home in throwback fashion on Friday against Madison in the old gym. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.