By Jim Mashek – Sporting Times
It’s natural, of course, for broadcasters, sportswriters and fans across the Commonwealth to dissect and analyze the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen bracket until the cows . think about coming home.
But at Bowling Green High School, they’re thinking only about the first-round game against University Heights Academy, the private school in Hopkinsville, which unfolds at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Lexington’s Rupp Arena.
Everybody’s playing for keeps at this point.
And no one has to tell veteran BGHS coach D.G. Sherrill that UAH is a top-flight program, and that Coach Grant Shouse will have his team ready to play when the Blazers get to Rupp.
Sherrill’s driving the same point home with his team. Enjoy the experience, but concentrate on the task at hand.
“Our kids are having fun, playing basketball, there’s no doubt about it,” Sherrill said. “I think we’re playing solid basketball right now, but we were shooting the ball a little better earlier in the year.
“We’re having to win in different ways.”
This has been the Purples’ goal since the tough 53-42 loss to Dre Boyd and Warren Central in the KHSAA 4th Region championship game on March 10, 2020. Now that they’ve punched their ticket to Rupp, the BGHS players will turn their sights to winning a state title, a feat they pulled off in 2017, Sherrill’s last season before stepping aside for a three-year period. He returned to Bowling Green last spring, succeeding Derrick Clubb, and the Purples will take an impressive 23-2 record into the Sweet Sixteen.
“It’s one game at a time, man,” BGHS sixth man Conner Cooper said. “If we don’t win … that’s it. That’s it for a lot of us seniors.”
Isaiah Mason, the Purples’ offensive catalyst, was particularly effective in the 4th Region Tournament. Mason hit 9 of 12 shots and scored 21 points with eight rebounds to lead Bowling Green past crosstown rival Greenwood 57-49 in the championship game on March 24 at E.A. Diddle Arena.
If Bowling Green can knock off University Heights, the Purples would be matched against Ballard or Madison Central on Friday. Then, they would need to win twice on Saturday — an unusual scenario, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic — to cut down the nets.
That’s a tall order, indeed. Any way you slice it.
“I would think (the format) would help the best conditioned teams,” Mason said. “We’re very confident. I think everybody on the team knows what they need to bring to the table.”
University Heights has had an unusual season. The Blazers lost five of their first six games, and then had six consecutive playing dates wiped out by the COVID-19 protocol. Shouse’s squad is 15-9 on the year and has the fourth highest RPI among the 16 teams in the KHSAA 2nd Region. But the Blazers can put points on the scoreboard. In bunches.
K.J. Crump leads UHA with 17.1 points per game, and teammate D.J. Quarles shoots 41 percent from 3-point range while averaging 16.7 points per game. Amani McGee averages 14.2 points per game, and the Blazers’ William Bryan checks in at 10.2 points per game.
“They’re really athletic, they’re very aggressive,” Sherrill said. “They shoot it well from the perimeter. They’re in attack mode all the time.
“University Heights will play at a break-neck pace most of the time.”
BGHS senior forward Jordan Dingle, who will begin his college football career at the University of Kentucky later this year, is ready to get back to Lexington. Dingle and Cooper played key roles in the Purples’ run to the KHSAA Class 5A state championship in December.
“We’ve got to be level headed, going into the game,” Dingle said. “And when we get out there, on the court, we want to come out strong, and take over Rupp.”
The first step against University Heights awaits.
