GLASGOW – The Bowling Green boys’ basketball team was unable to dig out of an early hole, falling 66-45 to DeSales in the Barren County Shootout on Saturday.

Less than 24 hours after a win at Hopkinsville, Bowling Green (5-3) came out sluggish and couldn’t recover – struggling to find an offensive rhythm.

“I think if you go back and look the first four minutes of the game (that was the difference),” Bowling Green coach Derrick Clubb said. “We just didn’t start the way we needed to start and to (DeSales’) credit they came out ready to play and did a good job hitting us in the mouth, so to speak. Sometimes this happens. You play a lot of games. Today wasn’t one of our best ones.”

DeSales (2-5) bolted out of the gates, scoring the first 14 points.

The Purples struggled on the offensive end, with seven turnovers in the first period, allowing DeSales to build a 25-6 advantage.

“We came out here and we weren’t ready to play,” Bowling Green senior Eli Thurman said. “Coach called an early timeout just (to) get us back and stay aggressive, but we could just never get it back. We have to take better care of the ball and offensively we just have to be smoother.”

The margin ballooned to 32-8 midway through the second period before Bowling Green closed the half with a small surge to trim the deficit to 36-19 by halftime.

Bowling Green continued to make a run, scoring the first eight points in the second half to cut the margin to nine. The Purples got as close as 38-33 after a 3-pointer from Trevor Dennis with 3:53 left in the third period before the Colts used a 7-0 run to regain control.

Bowling Green got the lead back down to eight, but DeSales put the game away with a 14-0 run early in the fourth quarter.

“I really thought our kids battled and we got it down to five,” Clubb said. “I’m really proud of the guys, but we would like to have the start back though. We would like to have those first three or four minutes back. I’m not sure what it is, if it is back-to-back or what. If I knew that maybe I could stop it.

“Sometimes things like that happen, but I was really proud of the guys battling back and giving us a chance in the second half.”

Jarius Key led Bowling Green with 17 points, while Thurman added 11 points. The Purples shot 31.2 percent from the field.

Sam Weining had 31 points to lead DeSales, which shot 54.3 percent from the field.

Bowling Green returns to action Tuesday at 5 p.m. CST, facing Fairdale in the King of the Bluegrass in Louisville.

DHS 25 11 14 16 – 66

BGHS 6 13 20 6 – 45

DHS – Weining 31, Kelly 12, Brewer 10, Ruckriegel 10, Askin 2, Seibert 1.

BG – Key 17, Thurman 11, Mason 6, Dennis 6, Dice 4, Buchanan 1.