By ST’s Jim Mashek | Photos by Marlow Hazard
Saniyah Shelton and the Bowling Green High School girls basketball team seem to be peaking at the right time.
Shelton, the slender BGHS freshman, scored 22 points and grabbed six rebounds as the Lady Purples drubbed Russellville High School 61-29 in first-round play of the KHSAA Fourth Region Tournament on Sunday evening at E.A. Diddle Arena.
Bowling Green (24-6) will face Russell County, an upset winner over Glasgow, in second-round play on Friday. The Lady Lakers used a fourth-quarter surge to stun Glawsgow 40-36 in the early game Sunday afternoon.
“The Shelton girl, she’s tough,” Russellville coach Cameron Jackson said. “I think she’ll be a Division I player down the road. She goes downhill very well. Does a lot of different things.
She’s tough.
Russellville, which finishes its season 18-11, couldn’t keep up with the Lady Purples in the open court. The Lady Panthers also shot just 18.4 percent from the field, which allowed BGHS to cruise to victory in the fourth quarter.
“We had some good looks from the outside early in the game, but they weren’t really falling,” Bowling Green coach Calvin Head said. “We tried to get our feet in the paint.”
When that happened, the Lady Panthers were usually outmatched.
BGHS senior guard Keyozden Jones had eight of her 14 points in the first quarter. She has now exceeded 1,000 points for her Lady Purples career, according to Head.
Russell County slipped past the Lady Purples 43-42 before district tournament play began, but Jones believes that game will serve as an inspiration this time around.
“We played bad, as a team,” Jones said. “That ain’t gonna happen again.”
Head was pleased with his team’s defensive performance in the second half. Bowling Green gave up just two 3-point field goals in the game and forced 24 Russellville turnovers.
“The second half, we played a lot better, defensively,” Head said. “This was a good game for us. We found a way to get the ball in the paint.”
Meadow Tisdale had a nine rebounds and six blocked shots for the Lady Purples, and like Shelton, Tisdale is only a freshman. Lynkaylah James had nine points and a team-high 12 rebounds for Bowling Green.
Anastasia Dowlen led Russellville with 12 points and six rebounds. Amiyah Collier had 14 rebounds for the Lady Panthers.
