Jim Mashek

GATORS WILL TANGLE WITH BGHS BOYS IN 14th DISTRICT TOURNAMENT; LADY GATORS WILL SQUARE OFF WITH SOUTH WARREN

Greenwood High School’s boys basketball team was looking for a lift going into the KHSAA’s 14th District Tournament next week at South Warren.

The Gators may have found it.

Greenwood had four players in double figures and answered every Warren East challenge in the second half on Thursday night, holding on for a gritty 64-55 victory over the Raiders. Senior guard Leia Trinh and the Lady Gators set the tone for the night, stopping Warren East 50-45 in their final test of the regular season.

Warren East’s girls will take an impressive 24-4 record into postseason play, and the Lady Raiders will face Glasgow High School (6-23 overall) im the 15th District semifinals on Monday at Allen County-Scottsville. Third-year Warren East boys coach Kyle Benge’s squad has also drawn Glasgow, and they’ll play the next day, also at AC-S.

GREENWOOD BOYS 64, WARREN EAST 55

Greenwood has endured an up-and-down season but the Gators are certainly on the upswing heading into the 14th District Tournament.

Greenwood (14-16 overall, 6-10 against KHSAA 4th Region opponents) grabbed a 20-11 lead after the first quarter and stayed in front the rest of the way, staying a step ahead or two against the Raiders, who were playing their seventh game in 10 days.

“I can’t even remember the last time we practiced,” Warren East coach Kyle Benge said.

The Gators picked up some momentum with an impressive 72-39 victory over visiting Metcalfe County on Tuesday night, and they turned in a solid defensive effort to keep Warren East at arm’s length in the second half.

Sophomore point guard Kaleb Prince led the Raiders with 17 points.

“Our players have bought into playing defense,” Greenwood coach Will McCoy said, “and using it to get our offense going. We know we’re going to have to guard next week, against Bowling Green … We stayed steady. We made some adjustments on the fly, and that’s postseason basketball.

“This group’s really pulled together late in the season.”

Greenwood spent plenty of time at the free-throw line Thursday night. Junior guard Nick Simpson led the Gators with 17 points, and Garrett Hatcher, another underclassman, finished with 15. Senior swingman Zeek Noyse gave the Gators an offensive presence near the basket and scored 13 points, and Asher Pettus, yet another GHS junior, added 10.

“We felt like we picked up some confidence in the Metcalfe game,” Pettus said. “It’s been an off-and-on year … We know we’ve got to defend and rebound. I think we’re playing well at the right time.”

Greenwood will be a decisive underdog against Bowling Green High School, the 10th-ranked team in the state according to MaxPreps. Neither of the Gators’ first two games against the Purples have been particularly competitive, but on Monday, Greenwood will get a chance to extend its season into the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.

“I feel like we’ve kind of found an identity,” McCoy said. “We’re not supposed to win next week. Everybody knows that … We’ll do a deeper dive in practice and see what we can come up with.”

Kyle Benge’s Warren East squad (19-10 overall, 14-4 against KHSAA 4th Region opponents) has plenty of 3-point scoring threats, but the Raiders labored behind the line, and playing catch-up caught up with them in the end.

Sophomore point guard Kaleb Prince, a dynamic player, led Warren East with 18 points, and junior guard Brenden Bratcher added 14.

“When KP (Prince) drove the lane, there were two or three (Greenwood) guys around him,” Benge said. “Greenwood’s well coached and they shot the ball well.

“We had a close game (a 64-62 victory) when we played at Glasgow a few weeks ago. We’re going to take a little time off and prepare hard, for three days, for that game.”

GREENWOOD GIRLS 50, WARREN EAST 45

Warren East put together an impressive 20-game winning streak before dropping two of its last three games, first to Monroe County (55-38) and then on Thursday night against visiting Greenwood.

But Warren East coach Jenny Neville remains optimistic that her squad is equipped to make a postseason run, and the Lady Raiders (24-4 overall, 13-4 against the KHSAA’s 4th Region) will wipe the slate clean in Monday’s game against Glasgow.

“These ladies have been outstanding this season,” Neville said via text message Friday morning. “They’ve grown in leaps and bounds. We’ve been building this team over the last couple years and are seeing the results of that … I feel like we’re still peaking, and you haven’t seen our best yet.

“Our team, players and coaches, are ready and excited for the challenge and happy that postseason play is here. We’re ready to go!”

Greenwood senior guard Leia Trinh, who surpassed the career 2,000-point mark earlier this season, led the Lady Gators with 17 points on Thursday night. But first-year Greenwood coach Terrance Williams had balanced scoring against Warren East, as two other Lady Gators seniors — Avery Overmohle and Jojo McCorkle — each finished with 12 points.

Lydia Jones led the Lady Raiders with 13 points.

“We really played as a team tonight,” Trinh said. “We’ve had some tough losses lately but we really bounced back tonight. I tried to get my team going with driving the ball inside and getting it out to the perimeter. We’re looking forward to playing South Warren on Monday.”

Trinh, the steady 5-foot-3, 105-pound guard, has been a Greenwood starter since she was a seventh grader at Drakes Creek Middle School.