A few days removed from watching a double-digit lead dissolve into a loss, Bowling Green figured out how to maintain it despite Greenwood’s best efforts.

The Gators hung around in the fourth quarter, but could never close the gap to single digits. Jarius Key led the way with 21 points and 13 rebounds in Bowling Green’s 73-61 win over Greenwood on Friday night at Bowling Green High School, giving the Purples 14 straight wins over the Gators.

Greenwood (7-6 overall, 0-3 District 14) fell behind by double digits in the second half and kept within 10 points with less than three minutes to play, but Bowling Green (10-6, 2-0) hit 6-of-8 free throw attempts in the closing moments to seal the win.

Tuesday night, Bowling Green gave up a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter in a four-point home loss to Barren County.

“We were almost in the exact same situation with four or five minutes to go,” BGHS coach Derrick Clubb said. “We made a few more free throws and our offensive possessions were a little bit better. They made a lot of tough shots. I thought even though they were making shots, I thought our guys stayed patient on offense.”

Ben Carroll led all scorers with 25 points. The sophomore forward hit his second 3-pointer in the first quarter to pull the Gators within 14-13 heading into the second frame.

Key and Purples freshman Isaiah Mason helped Bowling Green ease ahead to a 30-20 lead at halftime on 51 percent shooting.

Key ran out of the gate with a 6-0 run of his own to start the second half and the Purples never looked back. Key added four assists to compliment his double-double.

“I thought we did a good job when we moved the ball and when we got it inside, I thought we had a lot of success,” Clubb said. “I thought our big guys did a great job sharing the ball and doing some high-low stuff and getting the ball to their big guy. Our guards did a good job moving the ball against that match-up zone. (Greenwood) played it a bunch of different ways and it keeps you off balance, but I thought our guys stayed aggressive most of the game.”

Greenwood settled for desperation attempts with 18 3-point tries in the second half, but only hit four of them.

“We just didn’t get to the basket and we were jerking up a lot of 3s that we shouldn’t be taking,” Carroll said.

Luke Littrell hit three triples in the fourth quarter and finished with 13 points for Greenwood, which hosts Logan County on Saturday night at 5:30 p.m.

Mason finished with 12 points for the Purples, who now add another regular season sweep of Greenwood after winning the first meeting 86-73 Dec. 12. Bowling Green will face off against ex-Purple Zion Harmon and Adair County on Sunday at Mustang Madness at McCracken County at 2 p.m.

BGHS 14 16 21 22 – 73

GHS 13 7 15 26 – 61

BGHS – Key 21, Mason 12, Kenner 9, Buchanan 8, Dennis 7, Dingle 6, Buser 4, Dice 2

GHS – Carroll 25, Littrell 13, Roberts 12, Stansbury 5, Nash 2, Powell 1, Williams 1

Girls

Bowling Green 63, Greenwood 28

Bowling Green took lessons learned from a defensive struggle against Barren County on Tuesday and used them to rout Greenwood on Friday night.

Taylor Ragland and Keely Morrow combined for 44 points and an aggressive press helped Bowling Green cruise to a 63-28 win over the Lady Gators at Bowling Green High School.

The Lady Purples (9-7 overall, 3-0 District 14) used a tough press early to force eight turnovers and score the first 14 points in the first quarter. Greenwood (6-6, 0-3) was never a threat in its 30th straight loss to the Lady Purples.

Ragland had 12 points in the first 10 minutes to push Bowling Green to a 23-5 lead. Morrow scored 20 points to reach 2,500 points for her career.

“We made a lot of adjustments with practice the last couple of days,” BGHS coach Calvin Head said. “Barren County was an eye opener for all of us. What I liked about it was the girls responded in the appropriate way. We made some adjustments from the last time we played Greenwood and we pressed them and it wasn’t effective. We made some adjustments there and we tried to hone in on (Jacqueline) Jackson and (Riley) Hartis and did a good job.”

Jackson led Greenwood with 11 points and Hartis, who entered averaging 11.5 points per game, scored on just one free throw.

Greenwood shot 12-of-45 (.266) from the field and missed all 10 shots from behind the arc.

The Lady Purples cooled off in the second quarter, but still held a 33-12 lead at the break behind 12-of-28 (.428) shooting from the floor. Greenwood made just five field goals in the first half.

“They tried to speed us up and made us uncomfortable and they made us play like we don’t want to play,” GHS coach Zach Simpson said. “Every shot we took in the first half was predicated on what they wanted us to do offensively. We broke their press and we came back and was just jacking up shots. A quick shot out of that press is just as good as a turnover.”

Greenwood hosts Logan County on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Bowling Green hosts South Warren on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

BGHS 23 10 13 17 – 63

GHS 5 7 7 9 – 28

BGHS – Ragland 24, Morrow 20, Brown 5, Gurley 4, Whitson 4, Jones 4, Tardy 2

GHS – Jackson 11, Miller 4, Turley 2, Une 2, Gordan 2, Evans 2, Wheeler 2, Milam 2, Hartis 1{&end}