Jim Mashek

TISDALE SHINES INSIDE AS LADY PURPLES IMPROVE TO 21-10 OVERALL

It’s becoming a rite of passage for the Bowling Green High School girls basketball team.

Win a lot of games, get to the KHSAA 14th District Tournament championship game, pass that test and move on to WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.

And then, the KHSAA’s Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.

They’ve taken the first step.

On Thursday night, the Lady Purples made short work of Greenwood High School in the 14th District title tilt. Bowling Green outscored the Lady Gators 24-4 in the second quarter, taking a 44-12 lead into the locker room at the half.

The rest was a mere formality.

Veteran BGHS coach Calvin Head emptied his bench, quickly, in the second half and the Lady Purples cruised to a 58-32 victory over their crosstown rivals. Bowling Green improved to 21-10 overall heading into next week’s KHSAA 4th Region Tournament at Diddle Arena.

Greenwood advances, too, by virtue of Leia Trinh’s clutch 3-pointer in semifinal play Monday night, which sent the Lady Gators to a dramatic 48-45 victory over South Warren.

Greenwood will face Russellville in the 4th Region quarterfinals at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, while Bowling Green opens tourney play against Glasgow on Monday at 6 p.m.

The Lady Purples have had to make some adjustments on the fly. Senior center Meadow Tisdale missed three games late in the season with a knee injury. Junior guard Ryleigh Campbell, who had emerged as a top-flight 3-point shooter, sustained a torn ACL in practice earlier this month. Bowling Green closed its non-district schedule with an ambitious slate:

Road games against Sacred Heart, the two-time defending Sweet 16 champion, along with shorter trips to Barren County and Bethlehem High School, before a tussle with Third Region powerhouse Owensboro Catholic in the Kentucky Vintage Tees Classic at Breckenridge County High School.

The Lady Purples went 2-2 in those games, defeating Barren County and Owensboro Catholic by a combined five points. With Tisdale on the shelf, Bowling Green wasn’t competitive at Sacred Heart, dropping a 75-47 decision. BGHS coach Calvin Head wanted to challenge his team in the final two weeks before the playoffs, and it seemed to pay dividends on Thursday night, as the Lady Purples defeated Greenwood with little trouble.

“I’m proud of our kids,” Head said. “I don’t know if we’ve come out of the gates, with that kind of energy, all year. I really liked how we set the tone in the first half. They were great, defensively, they rebounded and they shared the ball.

“We track that stuff over there. At halftime there was a little celebration in our locker room, how well we rebounded the ball and how many kills we had. A kill is three stops in a row and we did that six times, so defensively I am excited about that moving forward.”

Greenwood, which takes a 15-16 overall record into regional play, could never get on track against the Lady Purples’ swarming defense. Meadow Tisdale was effective near the basket, on both ends of the floor, and senior point guard Saniyah Shelton was her usual steadying influence. Katy Smiley, Tanaya Bailey and the rest of the Lady Purples were equally efficient, and Bowling Green earned its third victory over the Lady Gators this season.

“It means a lot,” Tisdale said. “It’s just crazy how much we all have accomplished in the six years I’ve played here. I’m just glad that we could bring another one home.”

The Lady Purples were quarterfinalists in the Sweet 16 in each of the last two seasons, and in 2020, they were in Lexington before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.

Greenwood coach Zach Simpson told Micheal Compton of the Bowling Green Daily News that his team has to play better defensively when the shots aren’t falling.

“Our biggest thing is we let a few mistakes snowball into five or six possessions,” Simpson said. “When things aren’t going well offensively for us we can’t let it affect our defensive end. Until we learn to fix that, it is going to be hard to compete with a team that plays as well in transition as they do.”

Tisdale led all scorers with 14 points while fellow BGHS seniors Saniyah Shelton and Tanaya Bailey each finished with nine points. Katy Smiley added eight points as the Lady Purples won for the fifth time in their last six starts.

Leia Trinh, the Lady Gators’ junior point guard, led Greenwood with 10 points.

Tisdale and Shelton rested for most of the second half, giving BGHS coach Calvin Head an opportunity to evaluate some of his younger players. Maybe it’s beginning to become old hat, the Lady Purples winning the 14th District in a walk, but Tisdale is on her way to Northern Kentucky University while Shelton has signed with Eastern Kentucky.

Changes are on the horizon on Rockingham Avenue.

“You want to stay in the moment, but you always want to build for the future,” Head said. “You never know when you might need a couple of these kids, later in the season. We’ve really got to take it one game at a time going into regionals.”