1) Warren Central (17-3) - 1/28 70-30 W Christian County, 1/31 86-56 W at #5 Greenwood, 2/1 56-57 OT L Henderson County    
Previous Rank: 1    
This Week: 2/3 at Madisonville-North Hopkins, 2/4 at Butler County, 2/7 vs. #2 Bowling Green, 2/8 vs. #14 Glasgow    
    
2) Bowling Green (18-4) - 1/27 81-61 W North Hardin, 1/28 109-65 W at University Heights, 1/31 68-53 W #4 South Warren, 2/1 61-55 W Ashland (at Woodford County)    
Previous Rank: 2    
This Week: 2/4 vs. Owensboro, 2/7 at #1 Warren Central, 2/8 at McCracken County    
    
3) Clinton County (24-1) - 1/28 71-61 W at Wayne County, 1/31 68-49 W #12 Glasgow, 2/1 71-37 W Whitesville Trinity (at Owensboro Sportscenter)    
Previous Rank: 3    
This Week: 2/4 at Edmonson County, 2/6 vs. Somerset Christian School, 2/8 vs. Pickett County (TN)    
    
4) South Warren (13-7) - 1/28 69-58 W at #10 Logan County, 1/31 53-68 L at #2 Bowling Green    
Previous Rank: 4    
This Week: 2/4 vs. #16 Russellville, 2/7 at #6 Greenwood    
    
5) Barren County (14-9) - 1/28 71-65 W at #5 Greenwood, 2/1 58-48 W at #11 Monroe County    
Previous Rank: 6    
This Week: 2/3 at #8 Cumberland County, 2/4 vs. #13 Franklin-Simpson, 2/8 vs. Adair County    
    
6) Greenwood (14-9) - 1/28 65-71 L #6 Barren County, 1/31 56-86 L #1 Warren Central    
Previous Rank: 5    
This Week: 2/4 at Daviess County, 2/7 vs. #4 South Warren    
    
7) Warren East (13-8) - 1/28 85-52 W #16 Russellville, 1/31 74-56 W at #15 Allen County-Scottsville    
Previous Rank: 8    
This Week: 2/4 vs. #10 Logan County, 2/6 vs. Bluegrass Blazers, 2/8 vs. Fairdale (at LaRue County)    
    
8. Cumberland County (12-7) - 1/28 61-47 W #15 Allen County-Scottsville, 1/31 87-83 OT W #7 Russell County, 2/1 70-69 W Southwestern    
Previous Rank: 9    
This Week: 2/3 vs. #5 Barren County, 2/7 vs. #12 Metcalfe County    
    
9) Russell County (13-8) - 1/27 70-60 W Wayne County, 1/31 83-87 OT L at #9 Cumberland County    
Previous Rank: 7    
This Week: 2/4 at #12 Metcalfe County, 2/7 at #11 Monroe County    
    
10) Logan County (12-9) - 1/27 77-63 W Edmonson County, 1/28 58-69 L #4 South Warren, 1/31 67-52 W #16 Russellville, 2/1 65-53 W McLean County (at Owensboro Sportscenter)    
Previous Rank: 10    
This Week: 2/4 at #7 Warren East, 2/7 #17 Todd County Central    
    
11) Monroe County (11-12) - 1/27 46-43 W at Hart County, 1/28 75-64 W Campbellsville, 2/1 48-58 L #6 Barren County    
Previous Rank: 11    
This Week: 2/4 at Adair County, 2/7 vs. #9 Russell County    
    
12) Metcalfe County (8-13) - 1/28 52-46 W at #12 Glasgow, 1/30 77-59 W Bluegrass Blazers, 1/31 49-87 L Green County    
Previous Rank: 14    
This Week: 2/4 vs. #9 Russell County, 2/7 at #8 Cumberland County, 2/8 vs. Campbellsville    
    
13) Franklin-Simpson (5-12) - 1/31 77-50 W #17 Todd County Central    
Previous Rank: 13    
This Week: 2/4 at #5 Barren County, 2/7 at #16 Russellville    
    
14) Glasgow (3-16) - 1/28 46-52 L #14 Metcalfe County, 1/31 49-68 L at #3 Clinton County    
Previous Rank: 12    
This Week: 2/4 vs. Caverna, 2/7 vs. #15 Allen County-Scottsville, 2/8 at #1 Warren Central    
    
15) Allen County-Scottsville (8-13) - 1/28 47-61 L at #9 Cumberland County, 1/31 56-74 L #8 Warren East    
Previous Rank: 15    
This Week: 2/3 vs. Bluegrass Blazers, 2/7 at #14 Glasgow, 2/8 vs. Fort Campbell    
    
16) Russellville (5-15) - 1/28 52-85 L at #8 Warren East, 1/31 52-67 L at #10 Logan County    
Previous Rank: 16    
This Week: 2/4 at #4 South Warren, 2/7 at #13 Franklin-Simpson    
    
17) Todd County Central (1-21) - 1/27 59-76 L Bluegrass Blazers, 1/31 50-77 L at #13 Franklin-Simpson    
Previous Rank: 17    
This Week: 2/4 at East Robertson (TN), 2/7 at #10 Logan County    
    
18) Foundation Christian Academy (16-4) - 1/27 78-15 W North Hardin Classical, 1/31 91-13 W Cloverport    
Previous Rank: 18    
This Week: 2/6 at Currey Ingram Academy (TN)    

Notes:

-The new year has not been kind to Greenwood, and the problems are accelerating.  They started the year 8-0, their best start in 27 years, and entered 2025 at 11-1.  But with the new year came a more difficult portion of their schedule, and they are now just 3-8 in their last 11 games.  This was possibly the worst week for them yet.  On Tuesday, they hosted Barren County, the team directly behind them in the rankings.  The Gators had a solid first half, getting out to a 33-24 lead for their greatest advantage of the game, with 3:20 left in the second quarter.  But Greenwood would score only three for the rest of the half, and led only 36-34 at the intermission, allowing the final six of the half to Barren.  The Trojans carried that into the third, scoring the first eight (so a 14-0 run overall), and never trailed again.  It was a tight contest, but ultimately, the end result was a 71-65 win for Barren County.  The Trojans have won six in a row at Greenwood, which is a rather remarkable streak on the home floor.  It turned uglier on Friday when they hosted Warren Central.  For Greenwood to have a chance at controlling their own destiny for the #3 seed, they had to win against the Dragons.  When they met in early January, Greenwood fell behind early, but made an impressive run in the fourth quarter to draw close, just running out of steam.  None of that was on display in their home confines.  The Gators never led - fell behind 10-2 immediately, and it was made 24-8 after an Armani Byrd put back dunk (drawing a technical for hanging on the rim).  The lead swelled to as many as 30, which was the final margin.  Greenwood shot 33% from the field in the game, making more threes (10) than twos (8), shooting 18/54 in total.  They turned it over 15 times, and were beaten on the boards 36-32.  The Dragons, for their part, shot 52.3% from the floor, and hit 14 threes, including eight from Ant McAfee, who had 33 in the game.  The loss dropped them to 5-3 at home this year, and 0-5 in district play.  To ascend to the #3 seed, they would have to beat South Warren this Friday at Greenwood, and then would have to finish ahead of South Warren in RPI in roughly two and half weeks.  Right now, Greenwood is just behind them (.58116 to .56921), and their schedule doesn't get immediately easier, but closes with some winnable games.  It's still possible, but their margin of error is virtually zero.  And regardless, they will play either Warren Central or Bowling Green in a district semifinal.

-While the week for Warren Central was pretty sparkling up to the end of the Greenwood game - winning by 40 and 30 against Christian County and Greenwood respectively, it ended with a thud against a solid Henderson County team.  Spoken of more in-depth here:

The upshot though is that Central did not have their A game the day after a district win, but to lose a 14 point lead (including 10 going into the final quarter) was stunning on their home court.  It very rarely happens for Central, and may serve as a bit of a shot across the bow.  They have a very big week coming up, with another back to back, this time traveling to Madisonville (who beat Henderson County on Friday) and then visiting Butler County.  They round it out by hosting rival Bowling Green, who will be looking to even the season series and, like Greenwood/South, are nipping on their heels in RPI and looking to grab that tiebreaker.  Central can wrap up the #1 outright with a win, but it is plausible that the Purples could grab it.  Always a big game.

-Bowling Green had probably the most impressive week, end to end.  They opened with a 20 point win over North Hardin, who entering the game had won 11 of 12, dealing them their largest loss of the year by quite a lot.  They followed it by drubbing University Heights 109-65, their most points in a game in 24 years, and their most in regulation since their school record 121 in December 2000.  100 point games don't come easy in the running clock era - it was their first one of those in eight years, only their second in 22.  On Friday they hosted a dangerous South Warren team, and after a somewhat close 16-11 margin after one, pushed into double digit margin by halftime, keeping South from making any serious threats against them the remainder of the night.  It wast the 15th win in the last 17 played at home for Bowling Green, kept them a perfect 36-0 against the Spartans (who have still played within single digits of them only one in the last five years), and most importantly moved them to 4-1 in district play, keeping them in play for the #1 seed, as described above.  Joseph Hurt had probably his finest performance of the year, scoring 26 in the contest, going 10/11 from the floor, including 3/4 from behind the arc.  Luke Idlett added 18, going 4/6 from deep.  The Purples added to that with probably their best win of the season, a 61-55 decision over Ashland at Woodford County.  Ashland is a consensus top 25 team by each outlet that posts rankings, and were rated #15 in the media poll.  The win was a big boost for their RPI, and critical entering a stretch that will see them play Owensboro at home on Friday, before five straight games on the road.

-Clinton County continues to march along, adding three more wins to move to 24-1, knocking off Wayne County by 10, Glasgow by 19, and Whitesville Trinity by 34.  Cannon Young had 25 points in the win over Wayne County, while Jaxson Mason did the heavy lifting against Glasgow with 29.  The Bulldogs are winning by an average of 21.48 PPG, and aside from perhaps a home game against Barren County on Valentine's Day, the day after a required district game with Russell County, there really isn't a team left on their schedule that should challenge them.  They will have to drop two of their scheduled games, as it would put them over the 30 game limit to play all they currently have, so it will be a bit interesting to see how they navigate it.  You don't want to have too much gaps in time down the stretch to keep your rhythm, so they'll need to be strategic about what gets dropped.

-Speaking of only having a few games left, Cumberland County strangely only has five left on their schedule, which would leave them playing only 24 in the regular season, six below what they could.  Uncommon to have that contracted of a schedule.

-And speaking of Cumberland County, they had the most consequential and closest contest of the week among the games that mattered.  The Panthers had won on the road at Russell County way back on December 10th, and entered their home matchup with Russell County needing only a single win to clinch a spot in the 2/3 game, though the likelihood of them falling down to the 4/5 was already low.  The Lakers, on the other hand, have quite a few games remaining, and a win for them would put them very much in strong position to likewise get into that 2/3 game.  Cumberland County played most of the game from behind, trailing by as many as 14, midway through the third quarter, and still trailed by 13 with 37.1 left in that quarter.  But that is when the rally began.  Gavin Craft knocked down a three from the wing to cut it to ten, and pressure forced a walk in the backcourt to turn it over the Cumberland County.  Craft caught a lob from Cash on the inbounds, then kicked it right back to Cash in the corner who nailed a three to cut it to 67-60.  Panther pressure forced another turnover in front of Russell County's bench, and a foul underneath while going for a rebound sent Harwood to the line, where he hit two free throws to cut it to 67-62 at the break.  In the span of 30 seconds, Cumberland County went on an 8-0 run and the game was on.  Two more free throws made it a 10-0 run into the fourth, and after a Laker free throw, Cash hit a three from the top of the key to cut the lead to 68-67 (a 13-1 run) with just under 6 minutes remaining.  The scoring slowed way down at that point, and though Cumberland County tied it at 70, they couldn't pull in front in regulation.  It was 75-74 Russell County with 25.1 remaining when Mayes Gosser went to the line, missing the first and hitting the second to make it 76-74.  Cumberland County brought the ball into the front court and called timeout.  A game tying attempt was missed, but Noah Wood got the rebound, and was fouled on the putback attempt.  He nailed both free throws, tying the game at 76.  Owen Loy brought the ball up the court, drove the right side of the lane, but his attempt at a game winner was blocked by Harwood.  The game went to overtime, where Cumberland County finally moved in front with a pair of free throws before the Lakers tied it at 78.  Connor Cash knocked down a three from the wing to make it 81-78 Cumberland County, before the Lakers tied it at 81 all with 1 minute left (Russell County's jerseys are very, very hard to make out numbers, so that one, I couldn't tell who hit!).  Cash had the answer again, hitting a shot from roughly 24 feet to put the Panthers on top for good at 84-81. A game tying attempt found back iron, and it was 85-83 Cumberland County when Noah Wood, the one who hit the critical free throws in overtime, made two free throws with six seconds left for the final 87-83 margin in OT.   The win moved Cumberland County to 4-3 in district play, and guaranteed them no worse than the 3 seed.  Russell County needs to win two of their final three games to guarantee themselves the 2/3 game.

-Expanding on district scenarios, this is what we have:
--In the 13th District, Logan County is 4-0, with a game against Todd County Central at home remaining (a sure win) and a visit to Franklin-Simpson on Valentine's Day left.  The district tiebreaker is "runs against" - which I'm just going to go ahead and interpret as points against - among tied teams.  Logan County would have to allow Franklin-Simpson to beat them by 31 to lose that tiebreaker, and that's assuming Franklin wins out.  It's not *wink wink* official, but Logan County is going to be the #1.  Todd County Central could in theory play themselves out of the #4 seed, but this is a Rebel team that has only one win on the year, has not come closer than 18 to a district opponent, and hasn't won since December 20th.  Realistically, they're not going to win enough to move out, but if there were ever a day, it would be February 14th when they host Russellville.  If they can somehow find a way to win that game by 19 or more, then they may be able to get out of the #4 spot.  But most likely, we're looking at Logan County/Todd County Central, and Franklin-Simpson/Russellville in the postseason.
--The 14th District has been discussed above, and really, it's all on the line this Friday.  All we know for sure is that Warren Central and Bowling Green will play South Warren and Greenwood in the district tournament.  What order those teams go in, thanks to the RPI tiebreaker after the last day for seeded play - which I'm told means the last day a seeded contest can be played, not the last seeded contest played - we may not know who will be in what specific slots until February 20th.  Right now, it's Warren Central in the 1 at 5-0, Bowling Green in the 2 at 4-1, South Warren in the 3 at 1-4, and Greenwood in the 4 at 0-5.  
--The 15th District is done, even though there's a district contest still to be played.  Barren County clinched the 1 at 5-1 in district play.  Warren East is the 2 at 4-2.  Glasgow is the 3 at 2-3, and Allen County-Scottsville is the 4 at 0-5.  AC/S visits Glasgow this Friday, but nothing can change the orders now.
--The 16th District is always the wild one.  We know Clinton County is the #1 - they're 7-0.  Cumberland County is second currently at 4-3, with only a game against Metcalfe County remaining.  If they were to lose that game AND Russell County won out, then Russell County would move ahead of them at 5-3, knocking Cumberland County down to the 3.  A single win by Cumberland County or a loss by Russell County clinches the 2 for Cumberland County, as they hold the tiebreaker with Russell County, and no one else can catch them.  Then, it gets interesting.  Russell County is currently 2-3, Monroe County is 2-5, and Metcalfe County is 1-5.  Russell County could theoretically finish 2-6 in district play if they lose out, with two road games at Metcalfe County and Monroe County left (both this week), and then hosting Clinton County on February 13th.  The Lakers won by 20 when they first faced Metcalfe County, and by 11 against Monroe.  It really doesn't feel like either of those teams will beat Russell County, let alone both.  If Russell County lost them all, they'd probably finish no better than a tie for fourth, and they definitely would fall behind Monroe County for third.  If Russell County loses to Metcalfe County, it will put a whole lot of pressure on that game against Monroe County, because Russell County definitely doesn't want to go into a game with Clinton County needing a win for seeding.  For Monroe County, it's simple in terms of what they can control - win on Friday at Russell County.  Given the likelihood Clinton County would beat Russell County, that means a strong chance Monroe County would at least finish tied for third and go to a random draw with Russell County.  Metcalfe County is in much the same position - just win out.  Their effort is more complicated by the fact they still have to travel to Cumberland County as well, but they've played twice already, and the combined margin was three.  While technically none of those teams but Russell County controls their own destiny, they kinda do, if you presume Clinton County beats Russell County on the 13th.  If you're rooting for it to be real interesting in that Clinton County result, root for Russell County to lose this week.  BTW, there is a scenario where all three tie, if Monroe and Metcalfe County win out and Russell County beats Clinton County.  All three would be 3-5, which would also go to a random draw.  And then who in the world knows who is going to be where!

-One final note - Glasgow continued a sharp decline, dropping a 52-46 decision to Metcalfe County before falling by 19 at Clinton County.  he Scotties have lost eight in a row, and are now 3-16 on the year.  It really felt like there was potential for Glasgow to make some moves when they got Martin back, but their win over Warren East in December now just looks like the crazy outlier it was when it happened.  I can't help but think of Coach Buford, fired by Glasgow after last season, when he took Glasgow to their best finish in the region tournament in 12 years and had a district title in tow.  It's one year, but doesn't seem to have worked out for them. 

District Matchups:
--13th District - 2/7 #17 Todd County Central at #10 Logan County, 2/7 #15 Russellville at #13 Franklin-Simpson
--14th District - 2/7 #2 Bowling Green at #1 Warren Central, 2/7 #4 South Warren at #6 Greenwood
--15th District - 2/7 #15 Allen County-Scottsville at #14 Glasgow
--16th District - 2/4 #9 Russell County at #12 Metcalfe County, 2/7 #12 Metcalfe County at #8 Cumberland County, 2/7 #9 Russell County at #11 Monroe County

Games to Watch:

-All of those games with district implications in the 14th and 16th are really worth watching and following.  Naturally, #2 Bowling Green at #1 Warren Central stands out, because when the two teams that have played for six of the last seven region titles and the presumptive teams to do it again this year meet, it draws eyeballs.

-Barren County vs. Adair County on Saturday is worth checking in on, just to continue to track Barren's progress.  The Trojans have hit their stride.

-Warren Central visits Butler County for the first time since December of 1989 on Tuesday.  The Bears have fallen on hard times, but have shown their mettle as when they earlier in the year gave Great Crossing a real run for their money in a game in the home confines. 

"Always a Big Game!"  Can remember when I was in high school and followed the basketball team at Warren Central.  Always the biggest game of the season!  Remember Dion Wingo for Warren Central being such a tough player!  BG would counter with Michael Roberson and it would be a battle!!!

Great times!  This should be a great game on Friday.  #2 of likely 4 meetings on the year!

Warren Central is the favorite, but

Go Purples!

A little Region 3 and Region 4 battle tonight, I am very interested in the Butler County and Warren Central game, the Bears coming off 3 straight losses all on the road before starting this 3 game home stand. Warren Central is coming off a win last night but that was long trip home from MNH and with the big rivalry game looming this Friday is it possible the Dragons look past a dangerous when HOT Bears team on the road. The fine folks at Sporting Times will be streaming this one for those interested. Link is posted below.
 

I don’t believe there will be a miracle in Morgantown tonight but HS basketball is fun for that reason, all it’ll take is a heroic effort from Price and Co. from distance and this one could get interesting. Decent length for Butler County, but they don’t  have the post play to give Central a battle on the boards. The Bears did give the Dragons all they wanted last year but that was with the D1 commit in Lawson Rice who is OUT for this season unfortunately, hypothetically if he was healthy this would be one of the better games across the state for the year, nonetheless the atmosphere for this one will be great!

 https://stfanclub.com/live/