A few weeks before the tournament Franklin Monroe squared off in a conference match against Newton knowing full well that an encore performance would be needed to advance in the sectional tournament. The Jets were able to pull off the curtain call with a full court press in the third quarter that swung the momentum in their favor. The Jets took care of the ball in the second half while causing turbulence with the Newton offense and cruised to a 55 – 39 victory.

Newton had a great game plan to begin the game by feeding 6’4” Logan King the ball. Newton Coach Neal Hans needed a balanced attack to be successful and thought that was one clinch in the Jet armor from the previous match up that they could expose. King responded to the call and started the game with 2 buckets in the lane that gave the Indians a quick 4-0 lead. Gavin Glascoe helped the Jets keep pace in the quarter with a trey that began the Jet scoring for the night. Glascoe finished the quarter with deuce that gave the Jets an 11 – 10 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

King started the 2nd quarter with another bucket in the paint and Newton’s leading scorer Jason Powell drilled trey that put Newton up 11 – 15. After FM’s Heath Kaufman and King exchanged buckets, Glascoe drilled his second 3’ of the game to pull the Jets to within one. Austin Pressley made his first bucket on the night after he received a nice feed from Glascoe that gave FM a one point advantage. The lead exchanged hands 5 more times before the end of the quarter to find Newton up 1, 23-22 at the break.

The Indians began the 3rd with an old fashioned 3 point play by senior point guard Kale Booher that put them up 4, 26-22. It was at this point the FM increase on the defensive intensity took its toll on the Indians.

The Jets chipped away at the lead until a Lane Lucas 2 put them up one, 26-27. The Jets scored 6 straight points as the result of Newton turnovers with Lucas being the recipient of two more buckets in transition and Ty French adding two free throws. The Jets outscored Newton 17-9 in the quarter to take 7 point advantage into the final stanza.

The Jet defense continued the clamp down on the Indians in the 4th quarter. King and Powell did not score a point in the second half of the game for Newton. The Jets allowed only 5 field goals for the entire second half for Newton while the Indians connected for only 6 free throws. Kings scored all 12 of his points in the first half while FM kept the leagues 2nd leading scorer 14 points below his average.

The Jets ended the night with a balance scoring attack. Glascoe finished the night with 3 treys and 11 points and Lucas scored 8 of his 11 points in the third quarter off the FM press. Ty French finished the night by going 6 for 8 from the free throw line down the stretch and ended with 10 points, along with Pressley who also finished with 10 points.

The Jets face Yellow Springs Wednesday, February 20th at 7:30 at Vandalia Butler. Coach Dane French noted that the Bulldogs mirror the Jets in many ways. “They like to get up and down the floor like we do and pressure the basketball, so it will at least be a very entertaining game! The key to the game is taking care of the basketball. We can’t get sloppy with the ball.” “Their offense is basically throw the ball up there and go get it, so we will have to box out a lot better than we did tonight to be successful against them.”

Scoring by quarters
FM………11…22…39…55
Newton…10…23…32…39

FM
Taylor – 2
Lucas – 11
Kaufman – 2
French – 10
Nealeigh – 9
Pressly – 10
Glascoe – 11
FG% 34.5 (17-48) FT% 64 (16-25

Newton
Booher – 7
Powell – 5
Lavy – 10
King – 12
Hutton – 5
FG% 39 (15-33) FT% 50 (7-14)

Three Point Goals
FM – 5 (Glascoe 3, Nealeigh, Lucas)
Newton – 1 (Powell)