The battle of 14th District powers goes to the home team, as every single game among the top three teams in the district did.  Warren Central started hot, jumping out to a lead as they did in the first matchup at Greenwood.  After scoring first and a Greenwood answer, Central used a 14-5 run to jump out to a nine point advantage, prompting a Gator timeout.  From there, the first quarter was marked by sloppy play, missed layups, and the ball not going in the basket.  For almost four and a half minutes, a Greenwood free throw to make it 16-8 was the only score.  Chappelle Whitney hit a three at the buzzer to make it 19-8 after one, starting what would be an 8-0 run to give Central their largest lead of the game to that point at 24-8, with Jaiden Lawrence leading the way with 13 points.  The entire rest of the first half (about six minutes) belonged exclusively to Greenwood.  They had a 14-0 run, and ultimately outscored Central 17-2 to close the first half, trailing just 26-25 at the break.  Central needed halftime like a drowning man gasping for air.  They responded out of the break, scoring the first six to push the lead back to seven, and I believe it only got as close as five the whole rest of the game.  The lead was 44-34 after three, and the decisive sequence came early in the fourth.  With the score 46-37, Glover dropped in a floater, Central forced a turnover, Glover potentially got away with a pushoff that knocked down two Gators leading to a Whitney layup, inbounds stolen by Walkup who laid it in for basket, and suddenly it was 52-37 and for all intents and purposes, the game was over.  The whole sequence took maybe 35-40 seconds. 

Of the three teams, Warren Central was the one that won their games by the largest margin, winning both of their home games by 22.  Greenwood won their home games by a combined three points while Bowling Green took theirs by 12 and 7.  But from the moment that Bowling Green won at home over Greenwood in December, it had the feeling of us heading to this scenario, the three way tiebreak.  It ultimately went Central's way (getting the 1 with Bowling Green the 2 and Greenwood the 3), which was frankly what it felt like was going to happen after Central dropped the house on Bowling Green in early January.

The Bowling Green/Greenwood district semifinal may very well be THE premier first round matchup in the state.

Whoever loses that District Semi-Final will likely be the best team in the state not going to a Regional Tournament.

13 minutes ago, Purple88 said:

Whoever loses that District Semi-Final will likely be the best team in the state not going to a Regional Tournament.

Pretty rare that a legit contender for the state tournament will fail to make the region tournament and it not be an upset. That's the fate of the Bowling Green/Greenwood loser.

I think it’s the best case scenario for Greenwood (for sure), and probably BG as well. Not having to play WC 1st round at their place. 

On 2/15/2022 at 8:43 AM, gchs_uk9 said:

Pretty rare that a legit contender for the state tournament will fail to make the region tournament and it not be an upset. That's the fate of the Bowling Green/Greenwood loser.

It kinda bites that the 3 top teams in Region 4 are all in the same district. 

2 hours ago, B-Ball-fan said:

It kinda bites that the 3 top teams in Region 4 are all in the same district. 

It's not ideal, but it's also the price to pay for being in the major population center of the region.  Those schools enjoy a major advantage getting to draw from a population that dwarfs the others. 

It will be painful when one of the top 15 or so teams in the state is guaranteed to go out immediately.

Hadn't been to a High School game in several years but decided to go Monday mainly just to see if the Greenwood hype was real.  Nice team but came away really impressed with Central . Curious if that was a typical game physicality wise. I've seen less contact in football games. Greenwood struggled to finish with all the contact. District games will be a war.

1 hour ago, jbckentucky said:

Hadn't been to a High School game in several years but decided to go Monday mainly just to see if the Greenwood hype was real.  Nice team but came away really impressed with Central . Curious if that was a typical game physicality wise. I've seen less contact in football games. Greenwood struggled to finish with all the contact. District games will be a war.

In the 14th District, yes, I would say that is common.  Normally there are more charges, they didn't call that as frequently as they usually do. 

Greenwood is very good, and road games are very difficult to win in the district if the teams are relatively even.  My belief is that if each team is at full strength, Central's best is better than either of the others.  I'd say Greenwood's best is better than Bowling Green's.  Rarely will a team be at their best on the road.  Greenwood's best quality is their veteran leadership.  Not much phases them.  They erased almost all of that 16 point deficit in the second quarter like it was nothing, really clamped down on defense.  Things just got away from them in the third quarter.  The game was both accurate in where it ended up and closer than it appeared.  Accurate in the sense that Central pushed out to big leads not once, but twice.  So they were the more dominant team by a wide margin for a lot of the night.  But things were much closer for most of the first quarter, the back half of the second, and most of the third.

Thought I had seen where Greenwood had played Friday and Saturday night, so 3 games in 4 days . Didn't appear to have Central's depth. Centrals pressure was unrelenting and game just got out of control. Kind of like how the draw played out. Had a son who played on the 2012 Greenwood team . Same deal . 3 way tie with coinflip resulting in Greenwood/WC semifinal at Central. Didn't work out well for the Gators. 

Greenwood’s team this year has something a lot of their teams over the last several didn't have. No fear of WC or BG. The leadership at the top starts it, and those 8 seniors play with it. 

19 hours ago, DragonFire said:

It's not ideal, but it's also the price to pay for being in the major population center of the region.  Those schools enjoy a major advantage getting to draw from a population that dwarfs the others. 

It will be painful when one of the top 15 or so teams in the state is guaranteed to go out immediately.

I don’t know how they decide district placements but the strangest one in the state imo is North Laurel is in the 49th district and South Laurel is in the 50th and the two schools are in the same county and city and are located about 2 miles form one another .