By Jim Mashek – Sporting Times
Isaiah Mason knew what was coming.
Allen County-Scottsville is nothing if not fearless, intense. Motivated. The Patriots meant business in Monday night’s KHSAA 4th Region semifinal game against the clear-cut favorite, Bowling Green High School.
The Purples were equal to the task.
Mason, the smooth 6-foot-5 senior swingman, scored a game-high 21 points and six rebounds in leading Bowling Green to a 53-38 victory over the gritty Patriots. BGHS will now play in the championship game on Wednesday evening.
Allen County-Scottsville, which finishes its season 16-8, erased a 17-2 deficit to open the game and actually built a slight lead midway through the third quarter. But the Purples had more quickness, more depth, and ultimately the look of a champion when it mattered most.
“We’ve been in this same position, the last three years,” Mason said. “One win away from Rupp (for the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen). I think we’ve finally figured some things out. If you sleep on a team like Allen County-Scottsville, they’ll beat you. They’ll make you pay.”
Mason and BGHS teammate Turner Buttry made sure that wasn’t the case. Bowling Green improved to 22-2 on the season and will now wait on the winner of Tuesday evening’s semifinal game between Greenwood (16-12) and Barren County (21-8), also at E.A. Diddle Arena.
Buttry finished the game with 15 points and three assists.
Veteran BGHS coach D.G. Sherrill was pleased with the Purples’ mental toughness down the stretch. Senior guard Mason Shirley and AC-S teammate Jax Cooper kept the Patriots in the game for most of the second half, but the Purples came up with six steals (three of them from backcourt blur Willie WIlson) and six blocked shots, including two each from Jacobi Huddleston and Trace Flanary.
“We had to show some resilience tonight,” Sherrill said. “A lot of teams would have folded, falling down 17-2 in this environment, with these kinds of stakes. The Shirley kid, and Jax Cooper, they’re warriors. I coached there 15, 16 years ago, as an assistant, and I know what kind of program (AC-S coach) Brad Bonds has built over the years.”
The Patriots rely on a physical, deliberate style of play, and they lost for the first time since an overtime defeat against Greenwood on March 9. Bonds said the Purples’ patience on offense in the fourth quarter was also critical to the outcome.
“The (AC-S) kids fought hard. We could have let it get away from us, early in the game,” Bonds said. “In the end, we weren’t as strong, we weren’t as quick, we weren’t as physical as they were … In the fourth quarter, when they needed a basket, they did a good job with the isolation game.”
Shirley came up with a nifty back-door pass to AC-S teammate Michael Smith for a layup and a 25-24 lead with 4:16 left in the third quarter. A couple possessions later, Shirley drilled an open 3 from the left wing, putting the Patriots in front 28-27.\
The Purples didn’t panic.
Mason knocked down a 3 himself, from the left wing, and Bowling Green took a 30-28 lead. The Patriots would get no closer. Mason’s offensive game near the basket helped give the Purples some breathing room, and the Patriots seemed to run out of gas in the final two minutes.
Shirley, a senior who hopes to play basketball after graduation, led the Patriots with 15 points, four assists and three steals. Cooper added 13 points, with no other AC-S player scoring more than a single field goal.
“We put ourselves in a position to win the game at the end .That’s a great basketball team over there (in Bowling Green),” Shirley said in the corridor when it was over.
“We did what no other Allen County-Scottsville team has done in 15 years … win in the regionals. It was a great season. Great teammates.”
Bowling Green will be playing for its first Sweet Sixteen berth since the Purples won the KHSAA state championship in 2017.
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