Jim Mashek

KHSAA 4th REGION TOURNAMENT RESUMES WEDNESDAY NIGHT WITH BOYS QUARTERFINALS

I’m just glad they didn’t revoke my credentials.

I’ve been unable to communicate through jimmashek.com for five days now, and it’s seemed a lot longer.

(First, I thought it was a laptop issue. My tech shop isn’t open on weekends, so I was idled on Saturday, when Western Kentucky men’s basketball closed the home portion of its regular-season schedule with a resounding 97-65 victory over UTEP. Then, it turned out to be a DATA PROBLEM, and it took a couple days to come to that conclusion. So, marching forward, however wobbly …)

The surging Hilltoppers, winners of six straight games, had three players finish with 20 or more points against UTEP — sophomore swingman Teagan Moore, the Conference USA Player of the Week for the third time this season, along with senior forward Grant Newell and senior guard L.J. Hackman, both playing at WKU for the first time this season.

The Tops (18-11 overall) have road games over the next three days against Missouri State and Florida International, and they’ve got a chance to hit the 20-win plateau before they leave for Huntsville, Alabama and the Conference USA Tournament next week.

(For the moment, I plan to be there, at least from the semifinals moving forward, provided the Hilltoppers are still in contention for the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.)

By Sunday evening, meanwhile, I was definitely fit to be tied.

The KHSAA’s 4th Region Tournament was unfolding, with girls quarterfinals beginning that day at WKU’s historic E.A. Diddle Arena. The Bowling Green High School girls team, a familiar squad come March on the Western campus, opened the tournament with a first-round matchup against Monroe County, the runner-up in the KHSAA’s 16th District.

Bowling Green, having motored through the 14th District without a loss, during the regular season and in the postseason, in the district tournament at Warren Central, had some ups and downs over the last couple months. The Lady Purples seemed poised to advance to the 4th Region semifinals, but Monroe County held strong in the fourth quarter, eliminating Bowling Green, 45-40.

In the nightcap, Barren County High School, the favorite to get back to the KHSAA’s Sweet 16 next week at Rupp Arena, rolled past Logan County, 71-44. The Trojanettes (30-2 overall) will now face Monroe County (21-9) in the first semifinal on Friday night at Diddle, looking to extend their impressive winning streak to 19 games.

The second girls semifinal on Friday night will feature Franklin-Simpson High School, the defending 4th Region champion, will tangle with 4th Region Player of the Year Avery Morris and Allen County-Scottsville, an intriguing matchup because Morris and Franklin-Simpson’s Allye Pennington, a junior guard, are veritable scoring machines.

(Morris, Allen County-Scottsville’s career scoring leader, is just a junior. She scored 38 points, hitting seven of 10 shots from 3-point range, while adding seven assists and four rebounds in the Lady Patriots’ hard-fought, 64-60 victory over Cumberland County on Monday night. Pennington, in turn, hit 5 of 12 shots from 3-point land, some of them well beyond the stripe, in a gritty 68-65 victory over Greenwood on Sunday. She’s averaging 21 points per game.)

That should be a fun matchup, to say the least.

The KHSAA 4th Region boys bracket began to unfold on Tuesday night, with odds-on favorite Warren Central High School catching fire in the second quarter on its way to a dominant 67-27 victory over Franklin-Simpson.

(Both Warren Central coach William Unseld and Franklin-Simpson’s Dee Spencer substituted frequently in the fourth quarter, with the game long being decided.)

Senior guard K.J. Johnson was on fire for the Dragons, hitting five of eight 3-pointers while finishing with a game-high 19 points. Dominique Anthony, a quick, versatile WCHS senior, added 10 points and five rebounds. Unseld was particularly impressed with the Dragons’ rebounding, as they finished the game with a 59-29 advantage on the boards.)

The second game of the boys quarterfinals had an intriguing matchup.

Clinton County High School, which reached the KHSAA 4th Region championship game last year, ran into a buzzsaw in Barren County.

The Trojans led from start to finish, with sophomore guard Weston Shelton leading the way with a game-high 20 points. BCHS teammates Cameron Pippen, Kade Hardy and Gavin Nunn all finished in double figures, while Clinton County closed the books on an outstanding 25-5 season.

All of Clinton County’s seniors joined the Bulldogs’ head coach, Nick Irwin, for the postgame press conference, even after most of the media types had called it a night.

(Warren Cunningham, the Trojans’ veteran head coach, and his players were more than accomodating while taking their turn at the dais inside E.A. Diddle Arena.)

Warren Central will get a chance to turn the tables on Barren County next week, in the 4th Region semifinals. Tate Spillman, now playing football at Georgetown College, and the Trojans derailed the Dragons, 58-44, in 4th Region quarterfinal play last year.

So here we are, halfway through the boys quarterfinals.

Third-year South Warren coach Carlos Quarles has taken the Spartans to the 4th Region Tournament for the first time in school history. South Warren (17-10 overall) squares off with 13th District champion Logan County (20-10) in the first game on Wednesday night, with Brandon Stockton’s Glasgow squad, the 15th District champion, squaring off with Monroe County in the nightcap.

The teenagers will make way for Western Kentucky women’s basketball team on Thursday, and then again on Saturday, before the girls championship will be settled on Sunday. The boys semifinals will unfold on Monday, with the championship game scheduled the next night, all at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Me? I’m still wandering around the clue section at the Wal-Mart, not exactly longing for the days of teletype and floppy discs, which is how we got the paper out at my first job in daily journalism, the Baytown Sun, in the early ’80s. There was a sense of satisfaction about putting together a quality product in those days, at the two Texas dailies in my early days in the business, followed by six more stops in four different states over the next 30-plus years.

(They’re still doin’ that at most daily newspapers, including in town, at the Bowling Green Daily News, but print journalism is hanging by a thread, unfortunately. My hometown newspaper, The Washington Post, gutted its editorial staff by eliminating ONE THIRD of its newsroom last month, while terminating the ENTIRE SPORTS SECTION, save a handful of writers. Jeff Bezos and his corporate warlords issued their walking papers to the likes of Lizzie Johnson, their accomplished foreign affairs reporter COVERING A WAR in Ukraine.)

I have some long-range projects I’m planning to pursue later this year, which may mean less copy for jimmashek.com, but I’ve never been accused of writing too-tight, USA Today-inspired stories, so I guess we’ll have to see down the road.

Meantime, the haphazardly dressed galoot at the end of the press table at Diddle Arena will be back, ready to produce more timely stories while wondering what actually happened when those Silicon Valley types invented the internet in the previous century.

(Wish I still had a few of those floppy discs. They could double as frisbees in the middle of the night back in the day …)