GLASGOW—Last season Glasgow went an abysmal 4-24, recording just two Region Four wins while dropping every single game in 15th District play.
Fast forward just one year later…the Scotties are champions of the 15th District for the first time since 2011.
Sophomore Jaden Franklin scored a game-high 20 points, and the Scotties ended the game on a 20-8 run to capture the 15th District title with a 60-54 victory over top-seed Monroe County on Friday night in Glasgow.
“It feels really, really good,” Glasgow head coach James Willett said. “These guys have earned it. They had a tough season last season with all the unfortunate events that took place with injuries and just bad luck, and it’s about time that these guys and this program experienced some good luck. But they made their own luck by being coachable and being good basketball players and just putting themselves in a position to do this. They did it, and I’m really proud of them.”
Glasgow (22-8) did have to overcome a good deal of adversity to get the hard-earned win.
The Scotties and Falcons entered the fourth quarter in a 40-40 deadlock, but Monroe came out of the gates firing to kick off the final eight minutes.
Monroe County Tucker Kirkpatrick hit a 3-pointer from the right wing on the first possession of the final frame before Ty Mink hit a free throw to push the Falcon lead to four. Kirkpatrick followed with a pull-up jumper from the left short corner to extend the lead to 46-40 and send the Monroe County crowd into an uproar, forcing Willett to call a time-out with 6:56 left in regulation.
But Willett was confident that his Scotties would get the job done as long as they stayed the course.
Glasgow senior Dalvin Smith came out of the time-out and scored a layup, and Franklin scored a basket on the ensuing Scotties’ possession to cut the deficit to 46-44 with 6:05 remaining.
Mink nailed a 3-pointer to extend the Monroe County lead to five, but Glasgow answered with a bucket to make it a one-possession game again.
Glasgow guard Kobe Brents was fouled on a three-pointer, and the sophomore found the bottom of the net on all three shots to tie the game up at 49-all with 4:44 left.
That moment proved to be the turning point for the Scotties as Glasgow would not trail again the remainder of the game.
“They started making shots from the volleyball line, and it’s tough,” Willett said. “They made some great plays. But I feel like if we just continued on with our plan, defending the way we worked on and hit the boards again, I felt like we had a chance. We executed on the other end and rattled off four straight possessions. These guys did it and showed their mental resolve and mental toughness (Friday night).”
Franklin scored back-to-back baskets to propel the Scotties to a four-point lead, and Tayshaun Bradley stepped up and hit two free throws—Brents being the one who was initially fouled but could not shoot the foul shots due to being injured on the play—to give Glasgow a 55-49 lead with under a minute to go.
Mink came down and scored a layup for the Falcons to cut the Scottie lead back down to four before Nik Sorrell—the hero of Wednesday night’s win over Barren County—hit two free throws to push the lead back to six.
Kirkpatrick answered with a 3-pointer for the Falcons to make it a one-possession game with 16.2 seconds left, but Sorrell came down and made two more free throws to push the Glasgow lead back to five with 12.9 seconds left—the Scotties sealing the huge win after Mink was called for travelling with 6.6 seconds left.
The Falcons (19-10) were led in the loss by Kirkpatrick with 18 points on four 3-pointers. Billy Michael Dyer and Chandler Clements tallied 11 and 14 points, respectively, for Monroe County.
The Scotties were able to have constant pressure on Dyer and Clements throughout the game, holding Dyer to 4-of-13 shooting from the field and Clements to 4-of-15 sniping.
“They got up and pressured more and tried to take those two away,” Monroe County coach Steve Kirkpatrick said. “They have been our leading scorers this year, and (Glasgow) did a real good job defensively.”
Overall Glasgow held Monroe County to 35 percent from the field on 18-of-52 shooting while the Scotties found the mark on 21-of-46 attempts for 46 percent.
But another major deciding factor in the win for Glasgow was the rebounding battle. The Scotties outrebounded the Falcons 33-29 after being out-rebounded by 16 boards in a 61-48 loss at home to the Falcons on Jan. 30.
“We preached it yesterday at our practice that we had,” Willett said. “We knew that we had to come in and limit their offensive rebounds the best that we could and I felt like we did that in the first half. That’s why we had the lead that we did.”
The Scotties had built their lead up to as much as 10 points during the second quarter, and Glasgow held a 26-23 advantage at the intermission.
Glasgow was led by Franklin with 20 points while Sorrell added 12 points and seven rebounds. Smith finished just one rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards.
Both teams advance to the Fourth Region Tournament at Western Kentucky University next week, and the Scotties and Falcons will know their first-round opponent after the drawing on Saturday morning.
Both Kirkpatrick and Willett are looking forward to this next stage of the season—for reasons that are the same yet different at the same time.
“I told them we can down there and make some noise,” Kirkpatrick said, “We can go down there, play hard, and get after it. All I ask them is to give it all they got.”
“If you get to that semifinals round wacky things can happen,” Willett said. “I think this team is good enough to win a game in the Region, and if things fall right we got a really good shot to make noise. But we have to maintain our focus and mental toughness. We’re hitting our peak at the right time.”
