An untimely timeout may have cost Pilot Grove the game in Monday night’s opening round of the 92nd Annual New franklin basketball tournament as the New Franklin Lady Bulldogs came from behind to defeat Pilot Grove 40-38.

Pilot Grove, seeded fifth, jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter going ahead 17-8.

The fourth-seeded New Franklin girls continued to chip away at that lead until midway through the fourth quarter when Pilot Grove coach Grant Fricke was assessed a technical foul. That may have been just the spark New Franklin needed as they outscored Pilot Grove 15-8 in the final stanza. 

As the final seconds wore down, Pilot Grove would have taken a lead when  they hit a 3-pointer, but seconds before the shot was taken, Coach Fricke called the ill advised timeout nullifying the basket.

“It was a one-possession ballgame that came down to the wire for sure. I’m kicking myself still,” said coach Fricke. “With 6.6 seconds on the clock, I’ve got it stuck in my head that you can’t take your timeouts home with you. I was sitting there looking up at that clock and thinking who was about to get the pass, and the 3-pointer falls, so we get to erase that one off. We had a shot left to be able to have a game winner. We’ll move on.”

New Franklin coach Morgan Vetter said it was a good win coming out of the break and trying to get back in the groove of things. “We’re still trying to find certain rotations depending on who we are playing, so our lineups are always going to change with this group. We finished strong. We always dig ourselves in a hole. We always joke that they like a close game. Tonight’s fourth quarter showed what we can do but we just need to put it together for four quarters.”

Sophomore Carly Dorson and senior Madelyn Chaney paced New Franklin with nine points apiece followed by three players, senior Campbell Cooper, junior Abby Maupin, and sophomore Addy Salmon, with six each. Junior Kristen Flick and sophomore Kelsi Fair each contributed two.

New Franklin will move on to play Community tonight (Wednesday) with a 7 p.m. tipoff.