Jim Mashek

McAFEE, DRAGONS PLAY HOST TO GLASGOW ON SATURDAY NIGHT; BGHS HITS THE ROAD FOR McCRACKEN COUNTY

Bowling Green High School’s boys basketball team seemed poised to settle an earlier score with archrival Warren Central on Friday night, shutting down the Dragons on the defensive end of the floor in the first half.

When Bowling Green’s Luke Idlett hit a put-back just before the horn sounded, the Purples had a 30-16 lead, plenty of momentum and a blueprint for squaring the two-game series in the KHSAA’s 14th District inside Dragon Gym.

Then, Warren Central returned for the second half, and senior swingman Robert “Ant” McAfee came up with a steal near mid-court before taking off for the basket. McAfee brought the crowd to its feet with a resounding dunk, and by the 1:52 mark of the third quarter, the game was tied at 35.

There were several lead changes after that, but the Dragons’ defense had changed everything. When it was over, Warren Central could celebrate a hard-earned, 55-49 victory over its crosstown rival before a packed house. The victory assures the Dragons will be the No. 1 seed for the 14th District Tournament later this month at the BGHS Arena.

“Once I got that dunk, I could feel it,” McAfee said when it was over. “I knew we were gonna win this game.”

Warren Central improved to 19-4 overall, and 6-0 in the KHSAA’s 14th District, while Bowling Green dropped to 19-5 and 4-2, respectively. Warren Central will play host to Glasgow High School (4-17 overall) on Saturday night, while Bowling Green will take the three-hour bus ride to McCracken County (13-10 overall). That game will tip off at 4:30 p.m. in Paducah.

Warren Central, in pursuit of a fifth KHSAA 4th Region title in six years, is a strong defensive team that shoots about 50 percent from the field. Bowling Green, which took the Dragons to the limit in each of the last three 4th Region Tournaments — including the Warren Central squad that went 36-1 while winning a state championship in 2023 — isn’t far behind, even though the Purples lack size near the basket.

Warren Central has had to deal with injuries and illnesses of late, as senior forward Jarek Kirk didn’t play in Tuesday’s 60-47 loss to Ty Price and Butler County. WCHS coach William Unseld was pleased with the Dragons’ tenacity in the second half, as Bowling Green managed just eight points in the fourth quarter.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Unseld said afterward. “They fought, they responded, they were up to the challenge. When ‘Ant’ gets going, he’s going …

“We’ve had a lot of sickness and injuries. We didn’t have Jarek or Jayren Byrd for the last few days … Armani (Byrd) was out for this game. I told the kids, ‘There’s no excuses.’ You just have to find a way to win.”

McAfee, the first-year WCHS player averaging about 21 points per game, is a difficult player to defend. He led the Dragons with 15 points on Friday night, while junior guard K.J. Johnson finished with 13.

“We were kind of upset with the way we played in the first half,” Johnson said. “We knew we could play a lot better than that. We had to do a better job with our rebounding, the 50/50 balls, hustling in general, that sort of thing …”

“We expected more from ourselves.”

Bowling Green was nursing a 41-37 lead after the third quarter. Byrd scored on an inside basket, trimming the deficit to two points, and Jarek Kirk followed with a three-point play to give the Dragons their first lead at 42-41.

From there, Bowling Green’s Braylon Banks and McAfee both hit some big shots before Johnson’s free throw tied the game at 45 with about three minutes left. Johnson then got a favorable bounce on a 3-pointer from the left wing, and the Dragons never relinquished that lead the rest of the way.

Bowling Green’s Joseph Hurt led the Purples with 17 points, while Banks finished with 15.

Veteran BGHS coach D.G. Sherrill said the first two or three minutes of the second half set the tone for the rest of the game.

“I told the boys, ‘You’ve got to play for 32 minutes,'” Sherrill said. “(Warren Central) did a good job, of going inside/out, and we started pressing a little bit on offense. We had ’em on the ropes, and then the first three minutes of the second half changed everything. We didn’t do a good enough job, defensively …

“We’ll probably play South Warren (in the 14th District Tournament semifinals), and they’re a very good team.”

Actually, Greenwood knocked off South Warren, 67-62, on Friday night on the Gators’ home court, so both teams have 1-5 district records, and the RPI system will determine the seedings for the third and fourth squads in the 14th District Tournament.

The Purples will play their next four games on the road, against McCracken County (Saturday night), Henderson County (Tuesday), Apollo (Thursday) and Russellville (next Saturday). The Dragons, meanwhile, will travel across town to face Warren East on Monday night. Warren East takes a 14-9 record into Saturday evening’s game against Louisville’s Fairdale High School in the Don Cummingham Classic at LaRue County.