Bowling Green girls and boys played against Allen County-Scottsville on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, at Bowling Green. (Austin Anthony/photo@bgdailynews.com)

Bowling Green is finding a groove in a press defense that’s becoming hard for other teams to escape.

The Lady Purples forced 22 turnovers and sophomore Shaylin Whitson had 15 points and seven rebounds in Bowling Green’s 48-43 win Thursday over Allen County-Scottsville at Bowling Green High School.

Playing their third game in four days, the Lady Purples (3-1) got 17 points off turnovers while utilizing a press that allowed them to jump out to an early lead and hold on for a second straight win.

“We’re using it all year,” first-year Bowling Green coach Calvin Head said. “That’s something we’re going to have to try to get better at and utilize because we want that fast, up-tempo pace. Any time we can get Keely (Morrow) out in transition to score uncontested, that helps us out.”

Despite facing foul trouble in the second half, Morrow followed up her 30-point outing against Glasgow with 12 points and nine rebounds – five offensive boards – with two assists and a pair of steals.

Junior T’Alla Brown had six points and led Bowling Green with five of its 13 steals. The collective defensive effort, plus Whitson and company’s ability to pick up the pace when Morrow faced foul trouble, gave the Lady Purples plenty to smile about to begin a five-day break before playing at Greenwood on Tuesday.

“Playing for (Coach Head) and learning defense, it’s really hard and you have to be on your toes at all times,” Whitson said. “Everyone just stepped up and played our game and it ended up going in our favor in the end.”

Mason Towery led Allen County-Scottsville (1-3) with 17 points and 12 rebounds. The junior forward was too good on the jumper in the first quarter for Bowling Green’s press to matter much. ACS had five turnovers, but Towery made every shot and had 10 points in the opening frame to give the Lady Patriots a 12-11 lead into the second quarter.

The Bowling Green press started paying off as the Lady Purples pushed ahead with a 10-2 run in the second to take a 25-20 lead into halftime. Bowling Green scored 13 points off 13 ACS turnovers in the first half.

Morrow drew her fourth foul midway through the third quarter and didn’t return until the 5:42 mark of the fourth. Bowling Green kept a small edge with T’Aalla Brown’s deep baseline jumper pushing the lead to 44-38 with less than three minutes to play.

Taylor Ragland’s layup with 56 seconds left in the game made it a five-point lead. Free throws from Ragland and Morrow down the stretch kept the lead secure for the Lady Purples.

Sarah Sutton poured in 14 points with six rebounds and three assists for ACS, which hosts Cumberland County on Friday night.

ACS 12 8 14 9 – 43

BG 11 14 12 11 – 48

BG – Whitson 15, Morrow 12, Ragland 9, Brown 6, Martin 4, Gray 2.

ACS – Towery 17, Sutton 14, Woods 4, Alderson 3, Day 3, Mutter 2.

Boys

Bowling Green 68, Allen County-Scottsville 44

A fast start was enough for Bowling Green in a 68-44 win over Allen County-Scottsville on Thursday night. Eli Thurman led three Purples in double digits with 16 points while Jarius Key and Trevor Dennis each had 15 points for Bowling Green (3-1).

The Purples built a 41-17 lead in the third quarter before Allen County-Scottsville (1-3) reeled off a 10-0 run and an aggressive fourth quarter that sent the Purples to the free-throw line several times in the final minutes.

Bowling Green made 20 of 30 attempts from the free-throw line and shot 20-44 from the floor.

“I thought we came out ready to play,” first-year Bowling Green coach Derrick Clubb said. “I thought we were flying around and causing some havoc. I thought we did a good job with our pressure. Haven’t done that much this year and haven’t worked on it that much, so I was really impressed with how we flew around and got deflections. We threw it in and got some easy buckets.”

Key got Bowling Green in a rhythm early with a putback and a fast-break slam for an early 9-2 lead.

Allen County-Scottsville hit just two field goals in the first quarter to fall into a 19-6 hole after the first quarter.

Key kept it rolling with another slam to open the second quarter and the rout was on. The senior led seven Purples in scoring at halftime with 10 points and a 32-16 lead. Bowling Green produced 17 points off 14 Patriots turnovers – nine steals – and outscored ACS 12-0 in the paint in the first half.

ACS finally caught fire in the second half and ended the third quarter on a 10-0 run. Marcus Carter’s layup to start the fourth quarter cut the score to 41-29, but Eli Thurman finally ended the Purples’ scoring drought with a three-point play on the next possession.

The Patriots started the intentional fouls midway through the fourth quarter to force the Purples into free throws and increase late game possessions in their favor.

“We will fight till the last second runs off that clock,” ACS coach Nick Chaykowsky said. “That’s one thing we’ll continue to preach. To be truthful, we can’t dig ourselves that hole. We should’ve played better in the first half like we did in the second half. To me, that’s just part of learning how to win and that process of winning.”

Cayden Ross led ACS with 10 points while Brett Rippy and Sam Clarke had nine points apiece.

BG 19 13 9 26 – 67

ACS 6 10 11 17 – 44

BG – Thurman 16, Key 15, Dennis 15, Mason 9, Buser 6, Dice 4, Gray 2.

ACS – Ross 10, Clarke 9, Rippy 9, Carter 8, Stamper 4, Carver 3, Lightfoot 1.{&end}