The Bowling Green boys’ basketball team has been a staple in the Region 4 title game for a little more than a decade, with 11 straight trips to the championship game.

But the last three years, the road to the Sweet 16 has ended there, with losses to Warren Central. Last year’s loss was one that still stings — with the Dragons rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to win in overtime.

A bitter end like that is enough to set some programs back, but for Bowling Green it’s just more motivation to break through. Even with the top two scorers gone, the Purples enter the season as one of the top teams in the region.

“We feel like we got snakebit at the end of last year, so we are kind of hungry to get back to playing basketball, get back in the gym,” Bowling Green coach D.G. Sherrill said. “You don’t have to see a whole lot. We got beat. Hat’s off to the team that beat us. They were a lot better than us, especially in the fourth quarter. We have been snakebitten a little bit the last couple of years and there is no guarantee you are back there. Both (Bowling Green and Warren Central) have had a lot of success, but we take nothing for granted. The district is going to be really good. You have four really good basketball teams here. Outside this district, you have teams in the region that have really gotten better and more experienced.”

The Purples will begin the season with the roster in a bit of limbo, waiting for members of the football team to complete BG’s season on the gridiron. That includes senior guard Deuce Bailey, the leading returning scorer who averaged 12.8 points a game. A few other players will join at the conclusion of football season, including seniors Trevy Barber and AJ Woodard.

“At the end of the day we are a good basketball team before any of those guys get here,” Sherrill said. “We are going to do what we do here at Bowling Green — start the season with these guys and go. I have no doubt that we will be successful.”

Among the players that have been with the Purples all preseason are three experienced guards in seniors Braylon Banks, Luke Idlett and Jace Wardlow. Senior Joseph Hurt, who averaged 14.6 points last season at Louisville Fairdale, joins the Purples as a transfer.

“I’ve been blessed to be here for a long time and this is just another run of really good kids who are good players,” Sherrill said. “The locker room is really good. The atmosphere in the gym is really good. If you have those kinds of things going and then you are talented on top of that, then you can really make something out of your team.”

And Sherrill remains confident that this roster can come together and make another run at the school’s first region title since 2021.

“We are going to play nine of 10 kids a night,” Sherrill said. “We are going to be deep. We are going to be athletic. We are not going to be as long as Warren Central.

“ … We are going to focus on the first round of the 14th District Tournament. That’s the only goal we have right now. If that is not your goal, then all of the sudden you look up and you are sitting at the house.”