LED FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRE GAME.
TISDALE, SHELTON EYE RETURN TO SWEET 16; LADY HORNETS ADVANCE
They’ve joined forces to play organized basketball since they were in grade school.
They’ve toiled at the summer camps, put in the conditioning work in the fall.
And now, with their high school careers hanging in the balance, Bowling Green High School’s Meadow Tisdale and Saniyah Shelton have reason to ponder the future.
Once they take care of the here and now.
HIS TEAM TWO WINS FROM ANOTHER SWEET 16 BERTH.
Tisdale, the Lady Purples’ 5-foot-11 center, and Shelton, the sinewy 5-foot-10 point guard, have joined forces with fellow BGHS senior Tanaya Bailey to give Bowling Green a high-profile presence heading into the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament this week at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.
Bowling Green looms as the favorite in the field, to make a fourth consecutive appearance at the KHSAA Sweet 16 tournament, but the Lady Purples have some business to address before that becomes a reality.
Bowling Green, the KHSAA 14th District champion, has yet to be challenged in three postseason games.
Tisdale scored 17 points a team-high 17 points, while adding six rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots, to propel the Lady Purples to a resounding 58-29 victory over Glasgow High School in the 4th Region quarterfinals on Monday night.
Shelton has become Bowling Green’s full-time point guard in her final year with the program, after sharing the role with Emma Huskey last season. Huskey and fellow 6-foot-2 senior LynKaylah James moved on to college after last year’s 29-8 season, with James joining the successful Berea College squad, a successful program at the NCAA’s Division III level.
Shelton has cast her lot with nearby Eastern Kentucky University, after guiding the Lady Purples to a solid season over the last four months.
Tisdale, meanwhile, is headed to Northern Kentucky University, after being named the KHSAA 4th Region Player of the Year in her final year of high school basketball. The clock’s ticking for the Lady Purples, who have become a perennial contender under veteran BGHS coach Calvin Head.
And there’s no time like the present.
“It doesn’t matter how many games you play here,” Head said in the postgame press conference. “That first game, you still get the jitters … you can kind of get swallowed up by the atmosphere. It’s an open arena, a different environment.
“We’ve had a lot of kids playing meaningful minutes, that never have before … it’s always good to get out there, and get a good feel (for the tournament).”
IN HER FIRST SEASON AT GLASGOW.
Kelsey Kirkpatrick, Glasgow’s first-year coach, can vouch for Head’s assertions.
The Lady Scotties finished second to tradition-rich Barren County High School in the KHSAA’s 15th District, have one of the youngest teams in South Central Kentucky. Kirkpatrick has five middle schoolers on her roster, along with three seniors — Mia Cassidy, Kaidence Byrd and Ashton Botts — and Glasgow was simply no match for the Lady Purples.
“Bowling Green’s length, it hurt us a little bit,” Kirkpatrick said when it was over. “I had a chance to work with Calvin Head a few years ago, and I know what he instills in his program. He’s done a great job there.
“Our kids are learning, that’s part of it.”
Bowling Green has reached the quarterfinals of the last two KHSAA Sweet 16 tournaments, at Lexington’s fabled Rupp Arena, and Tisdale, Shelton and Bailey are intent on taking them further in their final year with the program.
“As I senior, I wanted to step up my game, at every level, for my teammates,” Shelton said.
It’s been a season of some considerable challenges for the Lady Purples.
Tisdale sustained a knee injury in a methodical victory over Warren Central High School on February 3, sidelining her for three games, including a 75-47 blowout loss at the hands of two-time defending state champion Sacred Heart Academy, in Louisville.
Almost simultaneously, it seems, the Lady Purples were hit with another devastating blow.
QUICKNESS ON THE PERIMITER.
Ryleigh Campbell, a promising 5-foot-9 sophomore guard/forward, sustained a torn ACL on the practice floor, at the BGHS Arena. Those losses would dramatically shorten Calvin Head’s bench, and the Lady Purples have had to adjust.
Junior forward Katy Smiley has helped them do just that.
Smiley had 11 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots. She hit three of six shots from 3-point range, which had become a critical part of Campbell’s game. Campbell shot a team-high 38 percent from the 3-point line, while averaging nearly eight points per game.
Role players such as junior guard/forward JaSiyah Franklin and 5-foot-1 sophomore point guard NaTaya Wardlow have also showed steady improvement, giving Head some peace of mind about his team’s prospects down the road.
“You want to stay in the moment, but you always want to build for the future,” Head said earlier this month. “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 …”
That’s a mantra you’ll hear, of course, at the 4th Region tournament, from both boys and girls’ coaches. If you run into Saniyah Shelton on the BGHS campus, pretty much any time of the year, chances are you’ll see Meadow Tisdale with her. They’ll be moving on, to separate destinations, after graduation day in a few months, and they’re intent on leaving a significant legacy before moving on to college basketball.
It’s what helps BGHS coach Calvin Head build a program, which is what you see from longtime Purples boys basketball coach D.G. Sherrill, too.
Sherrill is usually pretty easy to find at a Bowling Green girls game in postseason play, provided it doesn’t conflict with his coaching duties with the Purples. Other BGHS varsity athletes have turned out in droves for the Lady Purples’ games over the last few weeks, knowing that the moment is at hand to make a statement.
To put some skins up on the wall.
“We started to pick it up (in the second quarter),” BGHS junior forward Katy Smiley said. “We work on it, in practice, every single day. I think we get our energy from defense, and then we transition that over to the offense.
“That helps us with confidence too.”
IS THE 4TH REGION PLAYER OF THE YEAR.
The Lady Purples will be facing a youthful team on the rise in Metcalfe County, which has compiled a solid 20-9 overall record under first-year head coach Heidi Coleman. Coleman played college basketball at Wake Forest University, and she’s guided the Lady Hornets back to E.A. Diddle Arena, for regional play. Metcalfe County survived a furious fourth-quarter comeback bid from Logan County on Monday night, holding on for a 56-55 victory in overtime.
Barren County (22-6) and upstart Russellville (16-14) will tangle in Friday’s first 4th Region semifinal, followed by the nightcap pitting the Lady Purples and Metcalfe County. The winners of those games will play in the championship game on Saturday night, which will determine the 4th Region’s representative for next week’s Sweet 16 in Lexington.
“We’re going to come into any game, no matter who we play, and always try to get better,” Coleman said. “That’s first and foremost … Of course, we’ll see what we can throw at them.
“We’ll have something, for Bowling Green.”
IN THE 4TH REGION SEMIFINALS.
METCALFE COUNTY 56, LOGAN COUNTY 55 (OT)
Metcalfe County established the tone of the game in the early moments before Logan County began to catch fire in the third quarter.
Logan County went on a 7-0 run in the opening moments of the fourth quarter, and it became a grueling back-and-forth, half-court game after that. Both teams had two opportunities to win the game in the final two minutes of regulation, but the score remained tied at 48 going into overtime.
The Lady Hornets’ Aubry Glass hit three free throws, on four attempts, in the final minute of the overtime. Logan County was pressured after inbounding the ball with 3.7 seconds to play, and the Lady Cougars were unable to get a shot off before the horn sounded.
“WE’LL HAVE SOMETHING FOR BOWLING GREEN …”
“I’m so proud of these girls,” Metcalfe County coach Heidi Coleman said afterward. “Teamwork has carried us through a lot of games. At the beginning of the year, we had several tight games … I really think there was a grit, we were developing.
“We’re extremely young, but I think their love for each other and their love for what they are doing is carrying us over the hump in the tight games.”
Freshman guard Aubrey Jolley led Metcalfe County with 15 points, while Lady Hornets teammates Jozie Allen and Kassady London carrying the load inside. Allen finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, while London added 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Logan County’s Emerson McKinnis and Reese Wetton each finished the game with 11 points. The Lady Cougars close their season with an 18-14 record.
LOOKS FOR A PATH TO THE BASKET.
AUBREY GLASS AND THE LADY HORNETS.