Girls basketball: Big second quarter propels Ashton-Franklin Center past Fulton

ASHTON – The Ashton-Franklin Center and Fulton girls basketball teams looked evenly matched through eight minutes of Northwest Upstate Illini Conference play, as AFC held a four-point lead exiting the first quarter.

But then AFC guard Taylor Jahn got hot from the perimeter, and the Raiders went on a big second-quarter run to pull away for a 43-27 win over the Steamers on Friday night in Ashton.

Jahn made three 3-pointers in the second quarter, and Fulton’s offense went cold as the Raiders seized a commanding 29-10 lead at the half thanks to a 17-2 second-quarter surge.

Jahn made back-to-back 3s with around five minutes remaining before halftime, stretching the AFC lead to 22-10. Then Alexis Schwarz hit back-to-back jump shots to make it 26-10. Jahn closed out the first-half scoring with a 3 from the right wing with 20 seconds left.

“I think that run’s pretty important, because we played really hard and we worked our butts off at the start of the game, and it helped us finish out the game strong,” Jahn said.

Fulton coach Mike Menchaca said offensive rebounds were the primary culprit for the second-quarter struggles.

“I think we just needed to take care of the basketball and keep getting the ball where we have success, and it was a matter of effort there on both ends of the floor. But that run came from offensive rebounds,” Menchaca said. “It started with three, four missed block-outs, turned into back-to-back 3s, and then the wheels fell off from there. I would say the biggest thing, we’ve got a young group, and we’ve just got to learn how to play through some adversity and play through things that don’t go our way sometimes.”

AFC started hot with a 10-2 run in the first four minutes, but Fulton had answers early, trimming the deficit to 12-8 by the end of the quarter. The Steamers pulled within two points on a short Kylie Smither pull-up jumper seconds into the second quarter, but that’s as close as they ever got.

AFC coach Chris Jahn said the second quarter was the turning point in the game, and his daughter’s scoring surge was a big part of that.

“Excellent work as far as team there. We were talking about executing on offense, and I think that was part of our run there, was executing on offense,” he said. “Of course, Taylor got hot from 3 there, had a couple 3s for us, kind of opened things up. That helped us execute more of our motion offense ... and I think the girls got confidence going into halftime that we were in command of the game.”

After allowing only eight points in the first quarter, AFC’s zone defense tightened up even more in the second and third quarters, where it allowed just three points total. The Raiders were able to extend their lead to 39-11 after three quarters, in large part due to their defensive effort.

Coach Jahn credited the entire team for executing its defensive game plan at a high level.

“We had a good defensive strategy,” he said. “Our zone defense worked well, everybody moved well, and I thought it was a real good team effort on defense, denying 3s and getting our hands on passes.”

Fulton made a valiant comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, outscoring AFC 16-4, but it was too little, too late.

Taylor Jahn’s 22 points and five 3-pointers were game-highs. Schwarz also had a solid outing for the Raiders, scoring nine points.

Reese Dykstra and Smither led the way for the Steamers with eight and seven points, respectively.





Dan Wussow

Dan Wussow

Dan is the sports editor for Sauk Valley Media. Previously, he wrote for The Post-Crescent in his hometown of Appleton, WI.