Jim Mashek

SOUTH’s CARLOS QUARLES: ‘THE CREDIT GOES TO MY GUYS …’

South Warren High School is sending its boys basketball team to the KHSAA’s 4th Region Tournament for the first time in school history.

“It was a long time coming,” third-year South Warren coach Carlos Quarles said after the Spartans’ comeback derailed Greenwood High School, 65-58, on Tuesday night at the Warren Central gym, a breakthrough for the Nashville Road school since opening its doors in 2010.

South Warren trailed by as many as 15 points before catching fire in the fourth quarter, when the Spartans outscored Greenwood, 24-12. Senior guard Owen Shively scored 17 points, one of four Spartans players in double figures, as South Warren (17-9 overall) won its fourth straight game heading into Friday night’s KHSAA 14th District championship game against No. 1 seed Warren Central.

The Dragons, ranked 10th statewide by Kentucky Sports Radio/On3, needed a sturdy defensive performance to eliminate archrival Bowling Green High School, 47-37. Neither team could establish much in the half-court offense, but Armani Byrd, Warren Central’s 6-foot-8 junior center, and senior guard Kaleb Prince kept the Purples at arm’s length.

Warren Central (22-3 overall) won for the seventh time in eight games, while Bowling Green, the KHSAA Sweet 16 runner-up last year, finished its season at 19-12.

The KHSAA 14th District girls champion will be determined on Thursday, with Bowling Green taking on Greenwood at 6 p.m., also in the Warren Central gym, followed by the Dragons’ return to the title game with a matchup against South Warren.

“We had a bunch of guys contribute tonight,” Warren Central coach William Unseld said.

WARREN CENTRAL 47, BOWLING GREEN 37

Senior guard Kaleb Prince, a transfer from Warren East High School, again took the initiative in the backcourt for Warren Central.

Prince came up with several critical defensive plays while leading the Dragons with 17 points, sending Warren Central back to the championship game.

“It’s really special, especially winning on our home court,” Prince said.

Both teams struggled from the field in the first half, with Warren Central taking an 18-17 lead into the locker room at the break. The third quarter started slowly, too, before Prince converted a turnover into points, followed by Dominique Anthony’s deft inside jumper off an inbounds pass underneath the basket.

Bowling Green managed just three points in the third quarter, with sophomore guard Hudson Aikins drilling an open 3-pointer with about two minutes to go in the period. The Dragons would extend their lead to double digits before the fourth quarter arrived, with Jeremiah McCombs scoring on a put-back before Prince beat the Purples on an inside move to the basket, making it 31-20.

Aikins hit two 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, but the Dragons’ defense returned to lockdown mode down the stretch.

Junior center Armani Byrd provided the Dragons with his usual presence, under the basket when he isn’t challenging the opponent in the backcourt of the full-court press.

Christian Muhire, the lone senior on the BGHS roster, went the length of the court before scoring with 1:38 left in the game, pulling the Purples to within six points at 36-30.

But they’d get no closer, before Byrd finished things off with an acrobatic dunk along the baseline.

Aikins led the Purples with 11 points.

Warren Central coach William Unseld called the Purples a “talented group,” and the Dragons avenged a 65-59 overtime loss to Bowling Green on January 22.

“They are young, but they are talented,” Unseld said. “They had a heckuva season. (BGHS coach D.G. Sherrill) has done a great job, for a long time, but he’s done a great job with that group.

“I just thought we were a little older. We went out, and made some plays.”

The Dragons have a deep team, and with seven seniors, they’ve got plenty of experience.

“Our defense was off the charts tonight,” Byrd said.

SOUTH WARREN 65, GREENWOOD 58

South Warren labored throughout the first half, as Greenwood forwards Isaiah Summers and Martell Tuttle kept the Gators on the attack, near the basket and from the perimeter.

The script pretty much flipped in the second half, but it took awhile for senior guard Owen Shively and the Spartans to hit their stride. Shively converted a turnover into a basket and subsequent three-point play with 6:03 left in the game, giving the Spartans the lead at 49-46.

The Gators would tie the score once, at 51, on Brayden Kennedy’s deep 3 from the right wing, but South’s Junior Perkins and Jax Decker would score inside to regain control, and Shively and his teammates hit enough free throws to seal the deal.

“We kind of lost our offensive identity,” Greenwood coach Will McCoy said. “We got foul happy, got some of our key guys in foul trouble. We didn’t make enough shots, didn’t make enough stops, down the stretch.

“They did.”

South Warren’s student section poured onto the court to celebrate with the Spartans, when it was over, and third-year coach Carlos Quarles was impressed with his team’s tenacity when it counted.

“The credit goes to my guys,” Quarles said. “It means a lot. It is program defining, in my opinion … You’ve really got to appreciate it.”

Shively was a steady hand at the point, and Spartans forwards Jax Decker and Johan Pratt delivered some critical baskets down the stretch. Shively led his team with 17 points, while Perkins finished with 14. Pratt scored one last basket, at the horn, and had 11 points, while Decker added 10.

“I trust these guys. I trust them with the ball in their hands,” Quarles said.

Decker said the victory represented a significant breakthrough for the Spartans.

“It means a lot to the school, it was a long time coming,” he said. “We kind of snapped into it, in the third quarter. And once we did that, we didn’t turn it off.”

“We just had to find our spark,” Shively added. “We’d fought through a lot of adversity all year.”

Isaiah Summers led the Gators with 15 points, while teammates Martell Tuttle and Landon Meador added 14 and 11 points, respectively.

Greenwood bows out with an impressive 23-8 record.