BALANCED ATTACK CARRIES BGHS PAST FRANKLIN-SIMPSON; LADY PURPLES FACE LETCHER COUNTY CENTRAL ON THURSDAY MORNING
LynKaylah James admitted the Bowling Green High School girls basketball team knew they had the right stuff to get back to the KHSAA’s Sweet Sixteen.
The Lady Purples’ senior center scored a team-high 16 points, adding 13 rebounds and three assists, to lead Bowling Greem to a 62-34 shellacking of an upstart Franklin-Simpson squad on Saturday night in the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament championship game at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.
For James and the other six BGHS seniors, it was a moment to savor, a victory to remember.
The game was a little uneven, on account of the fact that it was an obvious mismatch. Franklin-Simpson is a talented team, but the Lady Wildcats had no answers for Bowling Green’s size, its depth, and its relentless defensive play.
Bowling Green’s swarming defense limited Franklin-Simpson to 11 points in the first half, at which point the Lady Purples could have made their hotel reservations for Lexington and the Sweet Sixteen.
It almost seemed like a coronation.
That’s the program BGHS coach Calvin Head has built on Rockingham Avenue.
“We pinpointed the Sweet Sixteen, on our calendar, in the beginning of the season,” BGHS senior LynKaylah James said. “We have a lot of young players, and people like to talk about that, but we also have seven seniors. Our defensive principles have gotten us this far … and we know it’s gonna take a lot to get us where we want to go.”
That was probably music to Head’s ears.
Bowling Green led 15-4 after the first quarter, and pushed that margin to 34-11 at the half. Nothing short of a spectacular collapse could have even let the Lady Wildcats back into the game, but BGHS was too tough, too focused, and, ultimately, too stubborn to let anyone alter the storyline.
Bowling Green takes a 28-7 record into Thursday’s opening game of the Sweet Sixteen schedule at 10 a.m. CDT. The Lady Purples will tangle with Letcher County Central High School, a small school (approximate enrollment: 862 students) tucked into the Appalachian Mountains near the Virginia state line.
Letcher County Central takes a 26-9 record into Thursday’s tussle with Bowling Green inside Rupp Arena.
“These kids,” the Lady Purples’ Calvin Head said, “want to be part of something bigger than themselves.”
The Lady Purples were well on their way to Rupp when they suffocated Barren County High School in Friday night’s second 4th Region semifinal game. Bowling Green had faced Barren County in the tournament title game in each of the last three seasons, with the Lady Purples winning the last two.
This time, Tanaya Bailey’s 21 points carried Bowling Green to a 50-33 victory, and a Saturday evening matchup with Franklin-Simpson.
The Lady Wildcats hit just four of their first 28 shots and finished the game shooting 24.5 percent from the field. Senior forward Alera Barbee led Franklin-Simpson with 17 points and seven rebounds, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough.
“In terms of level of engagement, these last two games have been off the charts for our kids,” Head said. “It was difficult to get the same kind of energy tonight, with the short turnaround after Barren County. Our girls understand their roles. They accept them, they embrace them.
“It’s a really good group to coach.”
BGHS junior forward Meadow Tisdale, the 4th Region Player of the Year, ran into foul trouble in the third quarter but still finished with 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Tisdale’s versatility around the basket, particularly on the offensive end of the floor, gives the Lady Purples an edge against the vast majority of their opponents.
“We just have to pick up, where we left off, when we get to Lexington,” Tisdale said. “We have to take it one game at a time, and stay connected as a team.”
Two or three other BGHS players also used the term “stay connected” while the Lady Purples took turns cutting down the nets, posing for photos and doing interviews on the E.A. Diddle Arena floor.
It seems Calvin Head knows how to get his talking points across to the Lady Purples.
“The key to our success,” BGHS junior guard Tanaya Bailey said, “is staying connected as a team. When our defense is good, it creates a lot of opportunities for transition baskets for our offense.”
That’s where Bowling Green’s senior class comes in.
Senior point guard Emma Huskey, a starter for most of the last two seasons, turned in a splendid defensive effort on Friday night, chasing Barren County’s Katie Murphy all around the court. When the all-tournament team was introduced, BGHS junior Saniyah Shelton grabbed Huskey and walked with her for another set of photos on the Diddle floor.
“Emma’s a leader,” Shelton said. “A lot of people think they can bully her, but she stays strong.”
Huskey is on the small side, but she’s energetic, alert, and always willing to stick her nose into an opponent on defense.
“I was speechless, really, when Saniyah did that,” Huskey said. “But this team does have a special bond, together. It’s always our goal to get to the big stage.”
That’s what Franklin-Simpson’s second-year coach, Ashley Taylor, has in mind for her team. Barbee is the lone senior on the Lady Wildcats’ roster.
“You have to be able to score, one way or another, when you play a team like Bowling Green,” Taylor said. “Your defense is only going to take you so far. We played much better after halftime … They’re very hard to guard in the half-court game. We couldn’t set up our press because we weren’t scoring much in the first half.
“We’ve talked about not letting one game define our season. Franklin-Simpson hasn’t gotten this far in the tournament since 2009. We really accomplished an awful lot this year, we accomplished what we set out to do.”
Besides starters LynKaylah James and Emma Huskey, the BGHS senior class includes shooting guard Ava Bennett (7 points on 3-of-5 shooting), guard/forward Payton Briley, centers London Lightning and Paris Wardlow and guard Taniyah Fugate.
“It’s a special group,” the Lady Purples’ Calvin Head said, “and they’re gonna be ready to get back in the gym on Monday.”
