Raiders’ backcourt fires up offense to beat Glasgow

Published 12:40 pm Wednesday, January 22, 2025

by Jeff Nations

Warren East’s backcourt duo of Kaleb Prince and Brenden Bratcher put together a back-breaking spurt of offense to lead the Raiders to a 61-39 boys’ basketball win against visiting District 15 rival Glasgow on Tuesday night.

The guards got it done in the third quarter, turning what had been a tight-fought defensive struggle into a double-digit lead by the end of the frame.

“These guys have been playing at a high level,” Warren East coach Kyle Benge said of Bratcher and Prince. “It would be tough to get a better 1-2 combo than what we have. They can score the ball. They’ve been averaging close to 42 points a game for the last five or six games. We need them to be in that range to kind of keep us in games.”

Email newsletter signup

Warren East (11-7 overall, 3-2 District 15) evened up the regular-season series with the Scotties, who won the first matchup 75-71 in overtime on Dec. 19.

The rematch got off to a much slower start, with neither team able to get much offense going through the first two quarters. Glasgow (3-13, 2-2) slipped behind 15-7 early in the second quarter, but regrouped with a six-point spurt to get back within two points after a Jeremiah Driver basket in the paint.

The Raiders maintained a 20-17 lead at halftime.

“Twenty points at halftime is not really what we expected,” Benge said. “If you would’ve said 20-17, I would have said maybe at the end of the first quarter with the pace of play for both teams. We weren’t making shots early, we weren’t able to get out in transition. We really struggled finding a rhythm. Then we score 41 points in the second half, kind of getting back to what we’re good at and that’s making 3s, getting to the basket in transition, making the extra passes — we moved the basketball a lot better tonight than what we did at their place.”

The Raiders led just 26-24 when Bratcher and Prince too control. Bratcher, a senior, got the surge started with a 3-pointer. Prince, a junior, followed with an old-fashioned three-point play after drawing a foul on a drive to the bucket and hitting the free throw. Bratcher then drained another 3 and Prince capped the 11-0 run with a basket on a runner in the lane to set East’s lead at 37-24 heading into the fourth.

“I think this game we shared the ball more,” said Bratcher, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds to record a double-double. “The first half you could see we were kind of stagnant on offense. The ball was just sticking and we didn’t really have a lot of movement. In the second half, KP really started moving the ball, started getting in the paint and that really just opened it up for all of us.”

Prince stayed red hot in the fourth quarter, scoring nine of his game-high 21 points over the final eight minutes.

“We just knew that we had to be a little more aggressive coming into that fourth quarter,” Prince said. “Defense really helped a lot. And then once we got going, there was just no stopping us after that.”

Jerrick Martin had 12 points to lead Glasgow, which struggled to a 28% shooting night from the field and a dismal 7-of-21 effort at the free-throw line.

“A of it is just decision making — these guys are still making bad decisions,” Glasgow coach Brandon Stockton said. “I don’t want to make any excuses for our team, but the flu has been through our team this week. We haven’t had a full practice all week really with the team and they were fighting through it tonight. We just looked a step slow tonight. Everything was slow — passes were slow, defense was slow.”

Warren East is at Metcalfe County on Thursday. Glasgow will be at district rival Barren County on Friday.

GHS 7 10 7 15 — 39

WEHS 11 9 17 24 — 61

GHS — Martin 12, Je. Driver 7, Jo. Driver 6, Bartley 5, Minton 4, Bradley 2, Nunley 2, Allen 1.

WEHS — Prince 21, Bratcher 15, Gravil 8, Doyle 4, Parsley 4, Sloan 4, Miller 3, Overton 2.

GIRLS

Warren East 53, Cumberland County 41

Warren East forced eight turnovers in the second quarter to fuel a decisive scoring advantage in Tuesday’s 53-41 win against visiting Cumberland County.

The Lady Raiders outscored the Lady Panthers 16-7 in the second quarter to claim a 26-17 lead by halftime.

From there, Warren East (12-6) simply wouldn’t let their opponent get into any kind of rhythm.

“We’ve really worked on defense in practice, locking down and playing a good half-court defense whether it’s man or whether it’s zone, or whether we trap,” Lady Raiders coach Jenny Neville said. “I felt like the girls did a really good job of understanding the assignment tonight.”

Senior guard Madison Lawson scored a game-high 16 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. Lydia Jones nearly had a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Sam Carver tallied 10 points for East.

The Lady Raiders forced 18 turnovers.

“That’s our No. 1 thing is our defense, and once we work hard on our defense because sometimes our offense isn’t falling … once we start picking our defense and getting steals I feel like the shots begin to fall and it pushes our offense.”

Madi Cooksey scored 14 points and Keagan Walden scored 13 points to pace Cumberland County (12-5).

Warren East is back in action Thursday at Metcalfe County.

CCHS 10 7 10 14 — 41

WEHS 10 16 9 18 — 53

CCHS — M. Cooksey 14, Walden 13, McDonald 4, Morgan 4, Willen 4, Alexander 2.

WEHS — M. Lawson 16, L. Jones 15, Carver 10, K. Lawson 6, Collins 3, Wardlow 3.

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

email author More by Jeff

More Sports

Tops continue tough road stretch at LA Tech

Lady Toppers set to host Louisiana Tech for Education Day

Gators find way to outlast Franklin-Simpson

SLIDE SHOW: Warren East hosts Cumberland County, Glasgow for doubleheader

Print Article