Jim Mashek

BGHS STOPS SOUTH WARREN, 37-24; 4th REGION TOURNEY BEGINS SUNDAY

Offense was certainly at a premium in the KHSAA 14th District girls basketball championship game on Thursday night at South Warren High School.

Five-time defending champion Bowling Green High School and the Spartans combined for just eight points in the second quarter, sending the Lady Purples to the locker room with a modest 14-12 lead at the break.

Then Katy Smiley and Bowling Green went to work.

The Lady Purples outscored South Warren, 16-5, in the third quarter and stayed comfortably in front the rest of the way, posting a workmanlike 37-24 victory over the surging Spartans on their way to the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament. A draw for quarterfinal matchups, to unfold Sunday and Monday at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena, will unfold later on Friday at Warren East High School.

Bowling Green will be looking for its fifth consecutive 4th Region championship, and subsequent trip to Lexington for the KHSAA Sweet 16 girls state tournament.

“If you have an opportunity to do that, it is a special year,” BGHS coach Calvin Head said. “I think it is great for this senior class to do that. We are going to be prepared.”

The Lady Purples’ sixth straight district championship did not come easily. Bowling Green lost its last two 14th District regular-season games, by a combined four points, first to Greenwood and then to Warren Central. It was Warren Central’s first victory over BGHS since 2007, although the Lady Purples were without defensive dynamo NaTaja Wardlow in that game.

Bowling Green (20-10 overall) had lost five of its last eight games, coming into the district tournament. But the Lady Purples throttled Warren Central on Monday evening, 51-32, before squaring off with South Warren on Thursday.

Junior BGHS forward Katy Smiley scored a game-high 13 points and the Lady Purples found the defensive resolve to keep South Warren at arm’s length in the second half. However, Bowling Green’s senior guard/forward Josiyah Franklin, one of the Lady Purples’ top players in the open floor, sustained a leg or knee injury in the third quarter Thursday night.

Franklin seemed to be in agony while trainers and medical personnel attended to her on the floor, but she made it back to the bench for the end of the game and participated in the postgame activities on a pair of crutches. BGHS coach Calvin Head said Franklin would get a medical evaluation on the knee on Friday morning.

“Josiyah’s a tough kid,” Head said. “She’ll get (the injury) looked at, in the morning … We’ll trust our medical team and go from there.”

Sophomore basketball/softball star McLaine Hudson led the Spartans with 12 points. Eighth grader Jooniper Strow had seven points, but only four South Warren players got in the scoring column.,

“I think the girls are going to be ready for the regional tournament,” South Warren coach Lane Embry said. “Bowling Green has a really good defensive team. They’re physical. They’re big and athletic. We’ll get back in the gym and get to work for next week.”

Hudson said the Spartans need to find other ways to score, including getting to the free-throw line more often.

“We struggled on the offensive end, more than anything,” she said. “They adjusted very well to what we were doing on offense. Our press worked pretty well in the first half.”

Bowling Green’s Katy Smiley said she was concerned about Josiyah Franklin’s injury, but added the Lady Purples will be “ready to go” when they play at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena. Smiley was a transfer from Caldwell County High School when Bowling Green won the KHSAA 4th Region title on their way to Lexington’s Rupp Arena for the Sweet 16.

“Just being prepared trumps pressure,” Smiley said. “We came into this tournament and got it done.”

NaTaija Alexander had seven points for the Lady Purples, while Franklin finished with six.