The top-seeded New Franklin boys wasted no time in their pursuit of the title in the Glasgow Tournament on Monday, handily defeating Marceline 100-33.

But despite the 67-point rout, New Franklin coach Jim Schlotzhauer confessed he didn’t believe his team has been playing well this season.

The Bulldogs entered the tournament with an even 1-1 record after topping Brunswick 10 days prior, but losing to reigning Class 2 state champion Salisbury by just two points on Nov. 21. 

“I really don’t feel like we’re playing that well right now,” Schlotzhauer said after Monday’s game. “It feels like we’re fighting some things that we really shouldn’t be fighting. Until we get that figured out, I don’t think we’re going to play as well as I think we can.”

New Franklin’s 2022-23 state-ranked season came to an end at the hands of eventual Class 2 state champion Salisbury in the district tournament a year ago. Schlotzhauer said the loss to Salisbury this season came down to a difference in team discipline. 

“I think it’s just mental stuff. It’s discipline,” he said. “I think that’s why we lost to Salisbury the other night. They were more disciplined than we were. Until we do that, I don’t think we will play as well as we can. Hopefully, we will figure that out by the end of the year. We’re off to a slow start figuring it out right now.”

Despite a sloppy performance Monday night, New Franklin faced little resistance from Marceline. The Bulldogs opened the game with an 18-0 run and led 32-10 after eight minutes. New Franklin outscored the Tigers 24-4 in the second quarter to go into halftime up 56-14.

“Trying to play hard and set the tone defensively is what we want to do. I don’t know that we did that all the time tonight,” Schlotzhauer said. “It’s one of those games where you want to execute well, and I felt we were sloppy at times.”

The Bulldogs went on to outscore Marceline 44-22 in the second half to hit the century mark. And they did that with a healthy rotation of younger players. 

“We got our second group in there, and they kept playing hard. We want to run the floor and finish in transition, so those young guys have to do that, too,” Schlotzhauer said. “We still put up 100, but there were things we could have done better. We missed some easy layups. We missed some rotations. Things like that that you expect to do well in that kind of a game, but we didn’t as well as we should.”

New Franklin senior Drake Clark finished with a game-high 29 points on Monday. Sophomore Caden Schlotzhauer added 12 points off the bench among 12 Bulldog scorers.

Seniors Jake Marshal, Tanner Bishop, and Drew Rhorer, along with junior Rylan Hundley, each scored nine points.

Marceline was led by sophomore Barrette Stearns, who scored nine points.

New Franklin’s win sets up a rematch against district rival and two-time defending tournament champion Westran. The fourth-seeded Hornets won a controversial semifinal game over New Franklin last year in overtime. On Monday, the Hornets escaped the opening round with a 51-48 win over fifth-seeded Cairo. 

Westran lost its big 6-foot, 8-inch center, Langden Kitchen, to graduation last year. But the Hornets are still big and fast, and Schlotzhauer expects nothing less than their best game. 

“It’ll be a good game. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ve changed. It’ll be an up-tempo game and probably fun to watch.”

The winner moves on to the tournament championship at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. The loser will play for third place Saturday at 4:30 p.m.