Jim Mashek

PURPLES CLOSE THE DOOR ON OUTSTANDING 31-7 SEASON; IDLETT, BAILEY AND CARPENTER NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

LEXINGTON — They came at him, in waves, in tandem, and, at times, in what seemed like desperation.

The Bowling Green High School boys basketball team, however, was as measured as they come.

The Purples overcame one obstacle after another in the KHSAA Sweet 16, surviving two overtime games before cruising past South Oldham, 73-51, in the first semifinal on Saturday morning at famed Rupp Arena.

Bowling Green had just one player taller than 6-foot-1, in slender 6-foot-5 senior transfer Joe Hurt, who riddled South Oldham in the semifinals with 26 points in the resounding victory.

The Purples returned to their hotel, got off their feet for a couple hours, and returned to Rupp to find 7-foot-1 Malachi Moreno and the Great Crossing Warhawks waiting.

Great Crossing won all of its first three Sweet 16 games by double digits, but the Warhawks were anything but invincible. On March 11, they slipped past Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School, 59-57, in the KHSAA 11th Region championship game. They’d lost four games over the course of a challenging season.

Bowling Green was intent on making it five.

The Purples battled, they scratched and clawed, they hit the floor after loose balls, and they did what they could on the boards. But Malachi Moreno seemed to be everywhere, and next season, he’ll be playing for the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena.

Great Crossing 71, Bowling Green 61.

Bowling Green’s Kadyn Carpenter came up with a loose ball and scored on a layup with 5:46 left, and in a flash, the Purples trailed Great Crossing by just six points, 54-48.

It was arguably anyone’s game.

Except the Warhawks had the great equalizer under the basket, and a pretty fine supporting cast, too.

“I wanted to end my high school career, on this floor, holding a big ol’ trophy,” Moreno said. “And I know it wasn’t my last time on this floor, but it was my last time in a Great Crossing uniform. “Coach (Steve Page) is going to have a tough time, taking this jersey away from me.”

The Purples were clearly disappointed by coming up short, pardon the pun, but this was clearly a special team, too.

Veteran BGHS coach D.G. Sherrill tried to put it into words, on Twitter, on Sunday morning before returning to Bowling Green.

“I am so proud of our guys,” Sherrill said. “Thirty-one and seven (record), 14th DIstrict champs, 4th Region champs, Sweet 16 runner-up! This group never quit, they love and support each other.

“I’m going to miss our seniors.”

It’s a senior-laden squad, so Sherrill and his coaching staff will concentrate on player development while keeping their eyes on the prize … the gold ball trophy Malachi Moreno and the Warhawks took back to nearby Georgetown, Kentucky, after the championship game.

The Purples actually trailed by 24 points, 41-17, with 5:51 left in the third quarter on Saturday night, so it looked like the rest of the game might serve as a coronation for Great Crossing.

Not. Even. Close.

Bowling Green pressured the basketball, and the Purples found a way to get back in the game. Not enough to pull off the monumental upset, mind you, but it was impressive just the same.

“A lot of teams would have folded up,” Sherrill said. “We just dug down, found another gear. We needed to get that thing down to four or five points. We showed a lot of moxie, a lot of character …

“They’ve got a 7-foot guy, a 6-6 guy (GCHS forward Brady Orem), and we’ve got 6-2, 6-foot guys. So we knew we had a challenge in there.”

Moreno was clearly the difference, and the Purples couldn’t get him in foul trouble. He played the game’s entire 32 minutes, hitting 10 of 11 field-goal attempts to finish with a game-high 24 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Bowling Green collected 19 rebounds on the night.

“I’m really proud of this team,” Sherrill said in the postgame press conference. “I love these guys … they’re my guys. They’re high quality, high character kids.”

Bowling Green needed overtimes to slip past Connor Loy and a talented Adair County squad, 52-51, in first-round play Wednesday morning. On Friday, the Purples returned to Rupp and overcame an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to eliminate a skilled Ashland Blazer bunch, 80-74. They were in the semifinals for the first time since 2017, when Terry Taylor and Sherrill’s Purples squad cut down the nets for the school’s only boys basketball state championship.

They dusted South Oldham, 73-51, to helped set the stage for the championship game. Great Crossing was equally impressive in semifinal play, trouncing Montgomery County, 70-49.

BGHS senior guard Luke Idlett, who was named to the all-tournament team — along with teammates Deuce Bailey and Kadyn Carpenter — provided some perspective in the postgame press conference.

“Our goal, coming into the year, was to just get here,” Idlett said.

Braylon Banks’ clutch 3-pointer in the final seconds lifted Bowling Green past Warren Central — a Sweet 16 participant three years running — in the KHSAA 14th District Tournament on February 28 at the BGHS Arena.

That, believe it or not, is NOT a misprint.

Over the last month or so, Sherrill and Great Crossing’s Steve Page spent a lot more time with their squads on the practice floor, as opposed to actual competition. An elongated format was established because Rupp Arena was playing host to first- and second-round NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games in the third weekend of March.

One week after turning back a tough, disciplined Clinton County squad, 66-59, at WKU’s historic E.A. Diddle Arena, the Purples found themselves at 24,000-seat Rupp Arena, with the idea of capturing the state championship on their way back to Bowling Green.

It didn’t happen, but it was certainly a season to remember.

Malachi Moreno and Great Crossing claimed the championship, but Bowling Green was certainly a worthy adversary. The Purples made them earn it.

The Warhawks shot 58 percent from the field, hitting 28 of 48 field-goal attempts. As mentioned earlier, they outrebounded the Purples, 34-19. GCHS guard Vince Dawson finished the game with 18 points, five rebounds and three assists, and fellow Warhawks senior Gage Richardson added 15 points and six rebounds.

“It means everything,” Richardson said in the postgame press conference. “My brothers … we fought so hard at this.”

Kadyn Carpenter, one of six BGHS seniors, led the Purples with 19 points. Jace Wardlow fearlessly attacked the basket and had 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting, along with five rebounds. Joe Hurt, the slender senior transfer from Louisville’s Fairdale High School, had 11 points, four rebounds and two of Bowling Green’s three blocked shots in the game.

Then there was Deuce Bailey, the 6-foot, 175-pound senior guard in his farewell appearance with the Purples.

Bailey took Bowling Green’s football team to three consecutive KHSAA Class 5A state championship games — winning two of them, while taking MVP honors — and the gifted quarterback will soon be leaving for Springfield, Missouri, to play college football for Missouri State University. Bailey was matched up, defensively, with taller players throughout the Sweet 16, but nothing could compare to scrapping with Malachi Moreno under the basket.

Bailey had 10 points and hit the deck, hard, while drawing a foul from Moreno in the fourth quarter. Like his team, Bailey got back up, kept battling, and, when it was over, was asked to put a bow on his amazing BGHS career, which actually began as an eighth grader with D.G. Sherrill’s BGHS squad that reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2021.

“It’s kind of hard to say,” Bailey said. “This is probably the last time you’ll see me at Rupp … It was a great experience, and I’m thankful for it.”

Any way you slice it, it was an amazing season for Bowling Green boys basketball. The Purples will be back in the gym before you know it.