HAD 11 OF HIS 15 POINTS IN THE FIRST HALF.
DRAGONS MAUL WARREN EAST, 81-45; PURPLES OUST BARREN COUNTY, 51-46
They hit the boards and hit some big shots.
They’re hitting their stride.
They were a big hit at last year’s KHSAA Sweet Sixteen at Lexington’s Rupp Arena, and now they’re one win away from making that happen.
And just as the Warren Central High School boys basketball team anticipated, the No. 1-ranked Dragons will lock horns with archrival Bowling Green High School in the KHSAA 4th Region championship game on Tuesday evening at WKU’s E.A. Diddle Arena.
Just like last year.
And the year before that.
And in 2020, when Warren Central won the KHSAA 4th Region tournament but didn’t get to play in the Sweet Sixteen because of the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All that’s in the past, now.
CAN PLAY VIRTUALLY ANY POSITION ON THE FLOOR.
RECORDED SIX BLOCKED SHOTS
AGAINST BARREN COUNTY.
Warren Central, which slammed Warren East 81-45 in Monday night’s second semifinal, has been atop all of the polls for weeks — the Courier Journal, MaxPreps, Kentucky Sports Radio, the Associated Press. They’ve been winning by impressive margins. And they’ll face a live underdog in Bowling Green, which went to the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen quarterfinals in 2021, veteran coach D.G. Sherrill’s first season back on the sidelines after a three-year hiatus.
Warren Central coach William Unseld, who received his KHSAA 4th Region Coach of the Year award between semifinal games on Monday night, knows what the Dragons have on their hands Tuesday night in the 4th Region championship game against Bowling Green.
“We’ve got to play a really good team (Bowling Green) for the fourth time this (season),” Unseld said.
DEFENDS AGAINST THE TROJANS’ TATE SPILLMAN.
The Dragons are 31-1 overall and have won 21 consecutive games. Meanwhile, Bowling Green, their 14th District rival on Rockingham Avenue, has gone 28-6 without a single senior on its roster. And over the course of Warren Central’s impressive winning streak, no team has come closer than knocking off the Dragons than Sherrill’s BGHS squad.
On February 3, on the Dragons’ home court, Bowling Green’s M.J. Wardlow had a good look at winning the game in regulation, getting off an 8-foot runner before the horn sounded with the game tied at 61.
Wardlow’s shot was off the mark, however, and Warren Central outscored Bowling Green 14-6 in an action-packed overtime, the kind of basketball you’ve come to expect when the Purples and Dragons square off. Warren Central took the decision in OT, claiming a 75-67 victory, and they knocked off Bowling Green a third time in the 14th District championship game, an impressive 75-56 triumph at Greenwood High School.
Bowling Green had its hands full with Barren County High School in the first 4th Region semifinal on Monday evening, with junior BGHS center Mason Ritter taking charge in the early going. The Purples would go on to eliminate the Trojans 51-46, improving to 26-8 overall in the process. Ritter dominated near the basket, finishing with 18 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots.
After a quick KHSAA 4th Region awards ceremony between games, Warren Central took the court against upstart Warren East, its former 14th District rival. The Raiders, under second-year coach Kyle Benge, were making their first regional appearance in 26 years, and they manhandled Monroe County 68-46 last week in quarterfinal play.
This was one mountain a bit too step, however, and Warren Central used a 27-2 blitzkreig of a first quarter to win going away.
The Dragons knocked off Warren East 81-45, setting the stage for the rematch everyone seemed to anticipate.
Including the players themselves.
AND HIS PLAYERS RECEIVED AWARDS
FROM THE 4TH REGION COACHES ASSOCATION.
“We’ll see them again, for sure,” Warren Central senior swingman Omari Glover said after the Dragons’ dramatic 75-67 overtime victory over Bowling Green on February 4.
The Dragons had their mojo working in the 14th District title tilt at Greenwood, winning by 19 points. Even then, the talk was about a possible fourth matchup, with a berth in the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen on the line.
So here we are.
Tip-off for Tuesday’s 4th Region championship game is set for 6 p.m.
BOWLING GREEN 51, BARREN COUNTY 45
Bowling Green bolted to a 17-7 lead after the first quarter, with Mason Ritter dominating at both ends of the floor.
But the Trojans weren’t finished. Not by a long shot.
Blaine Watson’s drive to the basket with 3:45 left in the first half tied the game at 19, but the Trojans wouldn’t score again until the third quarter. Bowling Green led by as many as 15 points in the second half, but Barren County seniors Aiden Miller and Eli Brooks willed the Trojans back into contention.
Ultimately, Bowling Green had the right stuff in the fourth quarter, holding off a late Barren County surge for its second victory over the Trojans this season. Barren County finishes its season 21-13, while saying good-bye to Brooks, Miller and four more BCHS seniors, but veteran coach Warren Cunningham likes his team’s makeup and mettle.
HAD 9 SECOND-HALF POINTS.
“Ultimately, I’m proud of them,” Cunningham said. “They’ve fought like that all season … Bowling Green is so good, defensively. They pressure the ball, they close out really quick.
“We made a run, we made some shots. We were in good shape at the half.”
Ritter took an inbounds pass under the BCHS basket and hit a shot that put the Purples in front 26-19. Aiden Miller scored on the Trojans’ next possession, and Eli Brooks’ three-point play made it 30-24 midway through the third quarter.
Ritter would answer with a put-back, when the Purples’ M.J. Wardlow buried a 24-footer from the left wing to put Bowling Green in front 37-24.
LED THE WAY WITH 18 POINTS.
The Trojans would have to scramble back, just to have an outside shot at pulling off the upset, but it wasn’t meant to be.
It marked the 10th consecutive season in which Bowling Green reached the KHSAA 4th Region championship game.
“In these tournaments,” BGHS coach D.G. Sherrill said, “you have to find ways to win basketball games …. I thought we dug deep a little bit.
“We’ve got a nice group of kids. They work hard. We’ll just see how this goes tomorrow night.”
IS FLANKED BY BGHS TEAMMATES
M.J. WARDLOW (LEFT) AND MASON RITTER.
Ritter, the Purples’ 6-foot-8 junior center, led the way with 18 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Wardlow added 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and sophomore guard Braylon Banks scored all of his nine points in the second half.
Sherrill got extensive minutes from reserve guards Trevy Barber and Luke Idlett, in part because of Deuce Bailey’s foul trouble in the first half. The Purples survived some shaky free-throw shooting in the game’s final moments and won for the third time in four postseason games.
Now they get a shot at the odds-on favorite, Warren Central, which was the KHSAA state runner-up last season.
“We know our potential is high,” Wardlow said. “We just have to keep working hard.”
It was Ritter’s night, however, and the Purples will get another shot at Warren Central on Tuesday evening.
DRILLS A 3-POINTER FROM THE LEFT WING.
“I don’t know if anyone around here who has improved his game as much as Mason has,” Sherrill said. “He’s a 6-foot-8 kid with (NCAA) Division I offers … You kind of saw his skills take over.”
Aiden Miller, who is headed to WKU football as a preferred walk-on, led the Trojans with 12 points and nine rebounds. Eli Brooks had 11 points and five rebounds in his final game at Barren County, while sophomore guard Tate Spillman had 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
“Ending it this way … I didn’t play my best basketball in the postseason,” Brooks said. “Every day is a gift to play basketball … We’ve tried to bring the energy, in practice, to get where we are.”
IS FLANKED BY TROJANS SENIORS
AIDEN MILLER (LEFT) AND ELI BROOKS.
WARREN CENTRAL 81, WARREN EAST 45
Warren East knew it was in for a tall task beforehand, but second-year Raiders coach Kyle Benge said while preparing for Warren Central is one thing, playing AGAINST them is definitely another.
“It’s really hard to simulate 6-foot-5, 6-foot-4, 6-foot-4 in practice … Central’s the No. 1 team in the state for a reason,” Benge said. “This team is head and shoulders over every other team in the state, certainly all of the teams we’ve seen.
“Taking this job, it’s been the best decision of my life. It’s not just basketball. These guys have made my family feel welcome. My wife (Ashley) and my daughters. Every group of seniors are special, but I love these guys. I can’t say enough positive things about them.”
The Dragons’ Damarion Walkup was all over the court in the first half, hitting 5 of 9 shots while Warren Central took a 47-21 halftime lead into the locker room.
It was 26-2 after the first quarter — “we came out, in the first quarter, a little timid,” Benge said — and Walkup and the Dragons maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way.
Junior WCHS swingman Kade Unseld, the son of the Warren Central head coach, had one of his best games of the season. He played 23 minutes against the Raiders but finished with a game-high 20 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Kade Unseld was tough inside, and on the perimeter, and 4th Region Player of the Year Chappelle Whitney was equally assertive.
“(Walkup) practices that way, all the time,” Warren Central coach William Unseld said. “He’s got one speed. All out. That’s him, every day.”
DOMINATED THE FIRST HALF.
Whitney had 16 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Omari Glover, the Dragons’ football/basketball star, finished with 11 points, five rebounds and a team-high three assists. The aforementioned Damarion Walkup had 15 points, on 7-of-11 shooting, while steady point guard Iziyah Villafuerte finished with nine points, two assists and three steals.
The Dragons were simply too much for Warren East to handle, but that’s been the case for many of Warren Central’s opponents this season.
ARE AN IMPRESSIVE 31-1 ON THE SEASON.
“Tonight, we did what we wanted to do,” William Unseld said. “Get the pace up early, try to get the game the way we wanted to go.”
Warren East had 12 turnovers in the first quarter alone, and that was all Walkup, Whitney and the rest of the Dragons needed to take control.
“We just got hit with the whirlwind,” East coach Kyle Benge said.
FINISH THE SEASON AT 21-10.
HAD 11 POINTS AND FIVE REBOUNDS.
Isaiah Andrews, the Raiders’ 6-foot-8 senior forward, lead Warren East with 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots. Benge will be saying good-bye to Andrews and five other East seniors — Connor Doyle, Caiden Murrell, Simon Ghee, Isaiah Ghee, and Austin Rigsby, but he seems to have established a new identity with the Raiders, who competed in the KHSAA’s 15th District for the first time.
Warren East defeated Barren County 56-55 on February 24, taking its first district championship since 1989. The Raiders had a banner football season, too, going 11-1 in Jeff Griffith’s final season as the Warren East head coach.
“I feel like we’re setting a precedent, for future (East) teams,” Andrews said. “The loss hurts, it does, but we’re not going to hang our heads about it.”
GOT HIT WITH A WHIRLWIND.”
IS THE 4TH REGION PLAYER OF THE YEAR.
EAST’s DANE PARSLEY (No. 23)
IS THE DRAGONS’ STEADY POINT GUARD …
IN WCHS JUNIOR CADE HAMMER.
AND THE PURPLES
ARE 26-8 ON THE SEASON.
ABOUT NOT GOING TO LEXINGTON ….