Lady Purples beat Spartans for seventh straight district crown
Published 10:58 pm Thursday, February 27, 2025
Bowling Green’s girls’ basketball team entered Thursday’s District 14 Tournament championship looking to protect and extend an impressive run of titles.
The Lady Purples defended with ferocity and accomplished what they set out to do with another district tournament championship — that’s seven straight for the program — with a 43-30 win against South Warren at Bowling Green High School.
Bowling Green (12-16) extended its streak by ending the Spartans’ stellar run of eight straight wins. The Lady Purples did it with defense, mainly — Bowling Green’s size was a problem all night long for South Warren (15-14), which shot an icy 6-for-57 (10.5%) from the field.
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“That’s what we’ve been working on all week, just trying to make sure that our defense is elite,” Bowling Green coach Calvin Head said. “I thought we did a heckuva job doing that. They’ve been playing so well — (South Warren) had a heckuva stretch getting here, so we wanted to make sure defensively that we were in the right spots and try to make it as tough as possible.”
The Lady Purples didn’t exactly shoot the lights out, hitting 13-of-41 for 31.7% from the field. But Bowling Green found its range in the fourth quarter with a 15-1 run over the first six-plus minutes to pull away. South Warren didn’t hit a shot from the field in the fourth until Jooniper Strow ended the drought with a 3-pointer with just 1:27 left.
Before Strow’s trey, the Lady Purples had stretched a three-point lead to 17 at 41-24.
“Especially early, we were taking a lot of the shots that we wanted to take and they didn’t go down,” Spartans coach Lane Embry said. “I felt like a lot of them went all the way down and then came out. Bowling Green does such a great job defensively. I mean, they’re probably the best defensive team in the area. It’s just hard to score against them. They’re so long and physical. I felt like there was a lot of physicality that generally is fouls that may not have been tonight.
“It makes a difference, but hat’s off to Bowling Green. They had a good game plan. And if we don’t hit shots, it’s pretty hard to win.”
Lady Purples sophomore guard Emma Macy scored 10 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers during the decisive run.
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“Emma’s probably been the most consistent all week at practice,” Head said. “We’ve been waiting on that moment for her — no better kid than her to have a moment like this on the big stage.”
The Spartans had the advantage early, forcing five first-quarter turnovers while building a quick 7-3 lead. The Lady Purples trimmed that deficit to a point by the end of the first and put together an 8-0 run spanning the first and second quarters to surge ahead 14-8 on an offensive putback by Zara Hall.
South closed with four straight points to forge a 14-all tie by halftime.
The Spartans last led in the third at 21-19 on a 3-pointer by Catherine Calvert. The Lady Purples went ahead for good at 26-23 on a 3-pointer by Katy Smiley with 30 seconds left in the third.
Then came the fourth as Bowling Green took control.
“We’ve had trouble early in the season with trying to play four quarters all together, just consistent,” Macy said. “I think we did that tonight and we’ve just got to keep working and get where we need to be.”
Hall tallied 11 rebounds for the Lady Purples, who outrebounded South Warren 33-22 in the game. Maddie Davenport added nine points — on a trio of 3-pointers — in the win.
Jenna Lindsey tallied eight points and nine rebounds for the Spartans. McLaine Hudson also had eight points.
SWHS 8 6 9 7 — 30
BGHS 7 7 12 17 — 43
SWHS — Hudson 8, Lindsey 8, Fugate 4, Strow 4, Calvert 3, Gatewood 2, Kuzma 1.
BGHS — Macy 21, Davenport 9, Hall 4, Smiley 3, Smith 3, Ware 2, Pratt 1.
