Bulldogs fall in state championship after 3rd-quarter spark from Cougars

Mar. 18—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Carl Junction saw a third-quarter surge from freshman Kyrii Franklin that put Lutheran St. Charles on top 28-25 heading into the final frame of the Class 5 state championship of the 2023 MSHSAA Show-Me Showdown on Saturday night inside Great Southern Bank Arena on the campus of Missouri State University.

The Cougars (27-5) did just enough to hang on to that lead and take home the title with a 44-39 victory.

"It was a tough weekend scoring for us," Carl Junction head coach Brad Shorter said. "A lot of that had to do with the defense from our opponents. I thought our kids played hard and played until the end. We gave ourselves a chance there late and it just didn't go our way. But you tip your hat to a team like that. They're a good ball club."

"Championships are not easy, they aren't supposed to be easy," Lutheran head coach Erin Luttschwager said.

Things didn't seem to look easy at any point for either team. Both defenses came into the contest limiting opponents to low 30s in scoring. It appeared the game was headed in that direction with a halftime score of 15-13 in favor of Carl Junction (30-2).

"We certainly didn't have our best game offensively," Luttschwager said. "But (the players) made the plays down the stretch — the hustle plays, the rebounds to go get the win."

That is until Franklin went on her scoring spree late in the third stanza. The 5-foot-4 freshman was seemingly in the perfect spot on multiple occasions. Her run began when Carl Junction led 25-18.

She began with a shot in the lane. Then, she lined up a 3-pointer that teammate Jordan Speiser dished off to her. A little later, Franklin made one of two free throw attempts to bring the score to 25-24.

Franklin caught a rebound that caromed off multiple players inside and made an easy layup once she got hold of it to put her team ahead 26-25 — their first lead since it was 9-7 early in the second quarter. Her final basket of the run came on a cut down the lane where Speiser gave the ball to her again for the assist and a 28-25 lead.

Lutheran then outscored CJ 16-14 in the final quarter to clinch the championship.

Destiny Buerge found herself in foul trouble most of the game. She had two early fouls in the first half and then quickly picked up two more by the 4:46 mark of the third quarter. The first came with 5:06 left in that period.

With the Bulldogs trailing 41-39, Buerge was called for an offensive foul and was forced to watch from the bench for the final 25.5 seconds of the game.

Before that call, the senior guard had scored or assisted on 11 of the Bulldogs' 14 fourth-quarter points. The period began with an old-fashioned 3-point play from Kylie Scott to tie the game at 28 apiece.

"Klohe (Burk) came to me and said, 'Hey, we've got to have Destiny out here,'" Shorter said. "She was exactly right."

As the Bulldogs found themselves down by 6 — their largest deficit of the game — Buerge took over. It was 37-31 off of a Chloe Reed triple for Lutheran and CJ came back down and Buerge found Dezi Williams under the basket for an easy pair. Following a basket from Lutheran freshman reserve Kennedy Stowers, Buerge connected with Williams again for a layup to make it 39-35.

On an inbounds pass, the duo did it again. This time with its defense. Williams deflected the pass and it bounced into the hands of Buerge who drew a foul on her shot attempt. Buerge cashed in on both free throws to make it 39-37. After a defensive stop, Buerge got to the basket again for a layup to tie it at 39 with just 45 seconds to go.

Lutheran raced down floor and quickly added a layup of its own from Stowers to go back ahead by 2 with 33 left on the clock.

Eight seconds later, Buerge was called for an offensive foul and was forced out of the contest. The Cougars turned the ball over with a low pass that went between the legs of Stowers to give the ball back to CJ.

Burk raced up floor and coach Shorter called a timeout with 10 seconds left. Scott tried to get the ball in to Burk coming out of the timeout but didn't hook up and the ball went out of bounds and back to the Cougars.

Shorter mentioned that the play drawn up wasn't something they typically practiced and that with Buerge being off the floor a lot changed in the play calling.

Reed added two free throws after a foul and Lutheran was ahead 43-39. Scott tried a spin move into a layup in the lane a little later but couldn't get it to go. The Cougars sealed the game on one more free throw from Megan Aulbert to get the final score.

The Bulldogs and all scorers were led by Buerge with 18 points who only played 19 minutes in the last game of her career. The junior, Scott, tallied a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Lutheran's senior, Aulbert, paced the group with 11 points and picked up 14 rebounds for her own double-double. Franklin's 10 points in the third quarter were all she got in the game and were good enough for second-most on the team.

Other scorers for CJ were Williams (6) and Burk (5).

Hali Shorter had some final thoughts on the season Carl Junction had together.

"I think this season — I can't really explain it — how, just amazing this team is and how much we really love each other," she said. "We're crying right now because we lost but also because it's over and we don't want to not get to see each other every day after school."

Brad Shorter expressed his feelings of getting to have a "great weekend" with the team. He enjoyed being able to be with the players on his team that he considered "classy and great kids" all season.

CJ graduates four seniors in Buerge, Burk, Shorter and Allie Wrestler.

The Bulldogs set a program record with their 30 wins this season.

Carl Junction finished as runners-up in the Tournament of Champions in Fort Smith, Arkansas early in the season. It was tournament champions in McDonald County's Lady Mustang Classic, Pittsburg High School's Bill Hanson Memorial Tournament and the I44 Lady's Classic in Lebanon.