Jim Mashek

MIGHTY MITE NaTAYA WARDLOW LEADS THE WAY WITH 18 POINTS

From a distance, it looked like an uphill climb for the Bowling Green High School girls basketball team.

The Lady Purples had won four straight KHSAA 4th Region Tournaments, and they were back in the tournament semifinals on Thursday evening against No. 1-area ranked Franklin-Simpson. The Lady Cats, ranked eighth statewide by The Courier-Journal newspaper, took an impressive 30-1 record into the marquee game of the girls’ bracket at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.

Franklin-Simpson loomed as a strong favorite, to get to next week’s KHSAA Sweet 16 state tournament at Lexington’s Rupp Arena, and the Wildcat faithful turned out in droves in hopes of seeing the Lady Cats turning the lights out on Bowling Green’s season.

After all, in January, Franklin-Simpson coach Ashley Taylor’s talented squad strolled into the BGHS Arena and put a 51-33 beatdown on the Lady Purples. Bowling Green had won five consecutive KHSAA 14th District Tournaments before the 2023-24 season, but the Lady Purples had their struggles over the last three months.

Bowling Green lost district games to Greenwood and Warren Central, the latter on its home court, and the Lady Purples took a modest 21-10 record into Thursday’s high-profile matchup with 4th Region MVP LaReesha Cawthorn and Franklin-Simpson.

And they didn’t bat a collective eye.

BGHS junior point guard NaTaya Wardlow, all 5-foot-1, maybe 115 pounds of her, took the fight to the imposing Franklin-Simpson front line. She handled the ball, distributed it, and when push came to shove, she put her shoulder down and looked for a path to the basket.

Or made one herself.

Wardlow struck for a team-high 18 points, including 10 in the first half, in guiding Bowling Green to a resounding 52-39 victory over Franklin-Simpson before a spirited crowd of 2,234 at E.A. Diddle Arena. She kept the Lady Purples on the attack, particularly in a critical third quarter, when Bowling Green went 7-for-7 from the field, outscoring Franklin-Simpson 20-11 over the eight minutes of play.

Bowling Green (22-10) will face Todd County Central (19-12) in the 4th Region championship game on Saturday night. Todd County Central slipped past Metcalfe County, 51-49, erasing an 11-point deficit to reach the 4th Region title tilt for the first time since 1991.

And just like that, Bowling Green becomes the favorite again. Tradition tends to work that way.

Sixth-year BGHS head coach Calvin Head, who masterminded a brilliant defensive strategy, has always admired Wardlow’s drive and tenacity. The Lady Purples kept a body on the 5-foot-11 Cawthorn, a versatile offensive threat, anytime she got within six to eight feet of the basket. It had the look of a matchup zone, sometimes even a box-and-one, but Head was reluctant to share many particulars.

His smile at the postgame podium said it all.

“(Franklin-Simpson is) so good, you have to live with something,” Head said. “We just made up our mind, we were going to live with them making outside shots, and not panic. If you panic, and leave LaReesha and (F-S forward) Kloie (Smith) inside, with 1-on-1 matchups … then good night.”

Cawthorn played the game’s entire 32 minutes and did everything she could. She led the Lady Cats with 18 points, on 6-of-15 shooting, adding nine rebounds while going six for seven at the free-throw line. In the fourth quarter, however, with Wardlow milking the clock near the timeline, Cawthorn bolted through the perimeter in hopes of disrupting the Lady Purples’ Mighty Mite.

Wasn’t happening.

“My thought process … was we’ve got to win it,” Wardlow said afterward. “We’ve got to get to the championship (game) and Franklin was in our way, so we just had to get them out of our way.”

Her words reflected her fearless play at the point.

Bowling Green’s JaSiyah Franklin returned to the floor after missing the quarterfinals with a knee injury. Franklin played just over 13 minutes and scored eight points on 4-of-5 shooting, adding a couple steals on defense. Junior forward Katy Smiley fought foul trouble in the second half but had a monster game on the boards, finishing with six points, a team-high nine rebounds and one of the Lady Purples’ four blocked shots.

BGHS senior forward Chloe Potter, one of Head’s players who has logged significant minutes at the Sweet 16 tournament, played the entire 32 minutes and had eight points with six rebounds. The Lady Purples’ NaTajia Alexander was equally durable, logging almost 30 minutes on the court while scoring 10 points with four assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

The Lady Purples played with passion and purpose, and now they’re playing for another regional championship.

“In this region, in girls basketball, there was so much parity (this season),” BGHS coach Calvin Head said. “(The BGHS players) hear and read everything. They came here with a little chip on their shoulder and I am proud of them, for their toughness and resilience.”

Franklin-Simpson coach Ashley Taylor was impressed, too, telling the Lady Cats not to foul in the last 45-50 seconds, allowing Alexander to dribble the ball around the perimeter before the handshake line. Someone threw the ball into the sky as the Lady Purples savored a victory that few probably saw coming over the course of the season.

” They executed their game plan,” Taylor said. “They stayed with it, until the final buzzer. It wasn’t our night to make shots … we were 4-of-26 (from 3-point range), and some of them were really good looks.

“I wasn’t happy how our guards got beat, off the dribble, so much.”

Taylor tried to keep the big picture in mind in evaluating her team’s season.

“I am happy with our season,” she said, “but we didn’t meet our goals. That’s where we’re at … Thirty and two sounds good, it looks good, on paper.

“It doesn’t feel any better to us.”

Katy Smiley, the Lady Purples’ scoring leader, was happy to let teammate NaTaya Wardlow grab the spotlight, concentrating on her defense and rebounding. Bowling Green shot an amazing 65.5 percent from the field, also outscoring Franklin-Simpson 30-16 in the paint. The Lady Purples simply weren’t going to be denied on this night.

“We just switched it up, on defense,” Smiley said. “We’d worked on that all year, and it was something we’d need for a game like this. We just had to keep working, play our game.”

Win on Saturday night, and the Lady Purples will be playing for some time. In Lexington.

TODD COUNTY CENTRAL 51,

METCALFE COUNTY 49

Todd County Central’s Abby Williams and Alexis Taylor keyed a fourth-quarter comeback as the Lady Rebels overcame an 11-point deficit to slip past Metcalfe County in the nightcap.

Todd County Central reached the KHSAA 4th Region championship game for the first time since 1991. The Lady Purples haven’t played Todd County Central since the 2017-18 season.

Williams, a polished 3-point shooter, led the Lady Rebels with 18 points. Eighth grader Jordyn Shemwell — “she doesn’t play like an eighth grader,” BGHS coach Calvin Head said — finished with 14 points. Taylor, who powered TCC past Warren East on Monday, added 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Kassidy London led Metcalfe County with 19 points.

Taylor, a strong inside player, averages 19 points and 11 rebounds per game, while Williams is the Lady Rebels’ top threat from the perimeter. She shoots 33 percent from 3-point range while averaging 15 points per game.

Todd County Central takes a 19-12 record into the championship game, after winning four of its last five games. The Lady Rebels lost three times against Franklin-Simpson this season, with none of those games being particularly competitive.

Bowling Green’s Calvin Head, however, is leaving nothing to chance.

“With this (tournament) format this year, it gives us a day (for preparation),” Head said. “That’s going to be good for us, to rest up, allow our scout team to prepare, come up with a plan. We’ll tip it up on Saturday and see what happens.”