By ST’s Jim Mashek/Photos by Marlow Hazard
Bowling Green High School forward Cobi Huddleston understood the task at hand.
Likewise, his Purples teammates.
Bowling Green stayed on the attack on offense and challenged Greenwood’s perimeter shooters at the other end of the floor, and the Purples pulled away down the stretch to claim a 77-63 victory in the KHSAA DIstrict 14 Tournament on Wednesday night at South Warren High School.
“Our kids knew the kind of opponent standing in front of us,” BGHS coach Derrick Clubb said. “We have a lot of respect for Greenwood and the job coach (Will) McCoy has done with that program. Our defensive intensity was really good.”
Bowling Green improved to 23-7 on the season and will face the No. 1 seed, Warren Central, at 6 p.m. Friday. The longtime rivals split their two games during the regular season.
Huddleston and his teammates on the Purples’ front line dominated the boards and kept Greenwood’s fast break in check. Clubb used his deep bench to take control of the game in the third quarter, when BGHS outscored the Gators 18-8.
“We were pretty locked in tonight,” Huddleston said. “We saw what was in front of us. All of the guys contributed tonight. One through 15. Everybody in this program is willing to put in the time.”
BGHS guard Isaiah Mason showed a lot of versatility on offense and led all scorers with 30 points. The 6-foot-4, 170-pound junior said the Purples were ready to play after the exciting girls game went into overtime, with Warren East knocking off South Warren 57-52.
“We wanted to take advantage of the mismatches,” Mason. “We knew we had to take advantage of our size inside. We kind of let the game flow to us.”
Huddleston agreed.
“The game plan was to push it inside,” he said, “and if they collapse, on defense, we get it to our shooters.”
The Gators’ Cade Stinnett almost singlehandedly kept his team in the game and led Greenwood with 28 points. Point guard Noah Stansbury had 11 points for the Gators.
McCoy was pleased with his players’ effort.
“We needed that intensity you saw late, early in the game,” McCoy said. “We just got into a big hole against a very good defensive team. We’ve just got to keep building our program.”
Conner Cooper scored 21 points for the Purples and Huddleston finished with 10.
Now Clubb’s squad looks forward to Round Three against Dre Boyd and Warren Central on Friday evening.
“We can be as good as we want to be,” Mason said, “as long as we’re the aggressor. Going against Warren Central, man, that’ll be fun. They’re a great team.”
| ReplyForward |
