Purple_Reign

From @Dragon Fire "The wording of the tiebreak is "the day following the last day to play a district game." The 14th District interpretation is that means the last day that had a district game played. Another interpretation is that it is following the last day you're allowed to play one, which would be February 18th (so RPI as of February 19th)." FWIW, Bowling Green now has an RPI of .58500 and South sits at .57615 after BG has won 6 straight and 8 of their last 9. South has lost 5 in a row and will likely be 6 after their game vs Grayson County tonight. I am hearing there is only a gentleman's agreement in place over the cutoff date with which RPI is used for the tiebreaker for the 14th. Will be interesting seeing how this plays out.

The RPI issue is certainly strange. It appears the days of the coin flip are long gone and that is probably for the best. I would have assumed BG would get the nod for the 3 seed based on having the best district win of the 2 (home to WC). They also had a scoring margin edge of 2 points across their 2 meetings with south. BG has a district point differential of -28 and SW finished up at -51. Is RPI based on total season record or just in region? Either way, BG has 2 more chances for region wins in the regular season and south has 1. If BG and south were to both win out, they would both finish at 8-5 in 4th region play. Just odd if the formula punishes a team for playing more games.

Not sure anyone in the state could have predicted this. Just a bonkers game that is hard to explain, but @DragonFire did so incredibly well as always. BG was always going to take some lumps this year with how young they are, and this was certainly the year for some teams who have taking some beatings from the Purples over the years to get one over on them (see SW). Varsity roster consists of 1 senior, 3 juniors, 6 sophomores, and 6 freshmen. Purples have a chance to get back at their dominate level in the years to come, but there were concerns that taking too many whippings this season could seriously damage morale moving forward. Still an extremely tall task to win their next 2 on the road and avoid the Dragons in the first round of the district tournament, but a win like this is just massive for confidence.

Final from BGHS in overtime.

“For just over 90 years of basketball, Bowling Green didn't have any appearances in the state final, now they're in their third in a decade and looking for their second state title.” Good stuff @DragonFire. This is tough reading for the “DG can’t coach. Game has passed him by. Needs to step down. Players don’t like him.” Crowd.

Purples!!! What a ride.

BG has been lethal from 3 this season percentage wise and have had a few games where they have hit a bunch. However, in his tournament they have morphed into old school Sherrill ball driving to the basket and living at the line. They have only made 5 threes combined in their opening 2 games. Will be interesting to see if South’s style drags BG into a shooting contest or if they stick to what has gotten them here.

Purples!!! Shades of the 2014 squad with this group. Not supposed to be here, but relishing the moment. Always a special year if you make it to Saturday in Lexington.

Head scratching decisions from Breeze at the end of regulation and OT. Milked the clock with 40 seconds left and then calls a timeout with only 3.5 seconds left to set up a play. Then doesn't call a timeout after the Bailey layup with 8 seconds to go and goes home with 2 TO's in his pocket. What a great game to open the tournament and proud of the mental toughness the Purples showed after giving up the lead. Thought the egregious flagrant was the death nail but made enough plays to get over the hump! Bailey's shot will rightly get all of the plaudits, but I thought his defense on Loy all game was absolutely spectacular. When the lights come on, Deuce always shows up. On to Friday morning!

yes.

Most billed this is as the best matchup of the first round. Certainly living up to it.

I am struggling to remember a time where officials called a common foul and then huddled and reversed it to a flagrant. It was a basketball play and a rip through. Just gross when you already gave them the charge.

I am struggling to remember a time where officials called a common foul and then huddled and reversed it to a flagrant. It was a basketball play and a rip through. Just gross when you already gave them the charge.

This is a hosing late

Bg playing keep away a little too early for my liking. Need to keep attacking the rim.

Cannot believe Idlett missed that 3. Would have been the ballgame.

Big time redemption for DG Sherrill and this Bowling Green team. They painfully lost the region final last year when it was pretty obvious they were the better team and lost close games the prior 2 years as well. Nice to see this senior class stick together and finally get over the hump.

As stunning as BG’s loss to Central was in the region final last year, this feels much bigger. Not even the most confident of Barren fans would have dreamt a score as lopsided as that.

Say what you will about Hurt, but Idlett, Bailey, Wardlow, Banks, Carpenter, Davis, Dotson, and Kirkwood (only other kids who play) have all been in BG city schools since diapers. Would have been nice to have McCombs, Johnson, and Kirk with that group as well but @DragonFire is right, it's the way of the world now and the KHSAA is pretty much just looking the other way at this point.

One of the more bizarre things I can remember seeing in a game of that magnitude. Down 2 with around a minute to play and Central missed about 6 FT's in a row and got the offensive rebound each time. Shouldn't happen once - definitely not multiple times especially with a D1 post player on the blocks.

I still think BG was and is the better team this season, they just weren't in a 1 game scenario. They were borderline top 10 wire to wire, 29 wins, undefeated in region play prior to last night, wins over 4 teams that advanced to the sweet 16 etc. Central executed a nice game plan, and when it got tight late BG looked like a team who hasn't done it in a while - because they haven't. Having seniors who have experienced winning that game, even with little or no PT, makes a difference. Central got arguably Kade's best game of his season going 6/7 from 3 and BG scored just 3 points in the fourth quarter to lose in OT. Bounce of the ball here or there and maybe it goes the other way. But you can't take anything away from WC. They capitalized on BG's naivety and as I said earlier, appeared to want the game more.

No other way to put it, shocking loss for BG. Probably rivals the 2011 collapse for me. Played with their food up 9 in the 3rd then forgot how to play the final 12 minutes of the game. WC seemed to want it more. Congratulations to the Dragons.

Final. Warren Central 64 Bowling Green 57. Shocking upset in the 4th region. Dragons head back to Rupp for the 3rd straight year.

Overtime we go!

Tie game. 48-48. Central ball. 16 seconds to go.