Banks’ 3 lifts Purples to district title

Published 11:57 pm Friday, February 28, 2025

By Micheal Compton

The Bowling Green boys’ basketball team saw opportunity knock again in Friday’s District 14 championship game against Warren Central at Bowling Green High School.

Three weeks ago, Bowling Green had a 15-point lead in the second half against the Dragons, but Warren Central was able to rally and pull out a second win against the Purples this season.

On Friday, Bowling Green trailed by double digits but was able to rally back and had one final chance at getting the win. Deuce Bailey and Braylon Banks made the most of the last-second opportunity.

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Bailey secured an offensive rebound and fired to Banks for a game-winning 3-pointer with three seconds left that lifted Bowling Green to the 61-59 win. The victory secured back-to-back tournament titles for Bowling Green.

“Tonight was just one of those classic Central-Bowling Green games,” Bowling Green coach D.G. Sherrill said. “We know what they are and how good they are. We had to make some incredible plays down the stretch to get in that game. We had to get some big rebounds late to get over that hump.

“It was a heckuva win. It’s about the best win we’ve had all year. We will enjoy this one. It feels like we got a month before we play again.”

Warren Central (23-6) was looking for the third win this season against the Purples and appeared to be on the way to that victory early.

After Bowling Green (25-6) took a 7-4 lead in the first two minutes, the Dragons scored eight straight to gain the advantage. Warren Central led 20-18 after one and slowly extended the lead in the second quarter, with a 3 from Jarek Kirk making the score 36-23 with 2:59 left.

The Purples were able to get a little bit of momentum to close the half, taking advantage of Kirk picking up his third foul. Bowling Green went on a 7-0 mini-run to trim the deficit to 36-30.

“We subbed there with a 13-point lead,” Warren Central coach William Unseld said. “You don’t want to run the guys in the ground and you don’t want to use all your timeouts. We subbed and we had a bad lineup on the floor that just didn’t hold the lead for us. All we needed them to do was play it even right there. I think they went on a 7-0 run on us real quick.”

The Purples stayed within striking distance to start the second half, with a 3 from Joe Hurt giving BG a brief 49-48 lead with 57 seconds remaining in the third. Dominique Anthony’s putback 28 seconds later put the Dragons back in front and a 3 from Robert McAfee to open the fourth extended Warren Central’s advantage to 53-49.

The lead grew to 57-51 after a jumper from McAfee with 4:55 left, but Bowling Green scored seven straight — regaining the advantage after two free throws from Banks two minutes later.

Anthony got the lead back for the Dragons, who had a chance to extend it in the final minute but turned the ball over.

That set the stage for the go-ahead play, with Jace Wardlow’s runner in the lane drawing iron and Bailey able to secure the offensive rebound. Bailey then fired to Banks, whose 3 drew nothing but net for the lead.

“Credit to Deuce, he’s a helluva an athlete,” Banks said. “He’s going in against 6-5, 6-6 and still got that rebound. He found me on that 3. It felt good as soon as it left my hand.”

Warren Central had one more chance, with Ryan Hulbert’s halfcourt 3 spinning off the rim as time expired.

“I’m just proud of these guys,” Sherrill said. “They hung with it. They kept fighting. Braylon has made big plays for us for years. I was so happy for that young man to hit that shot in this game. The seven guys we played, I felt like we got something really good out of all of them. I’m proud of our guys. We beat a really good basketball team, but I think we are a really good basketball team.”

Hurt led the Purples with 17 points, while Banks and Kadyn Carpenter added 10 points each.

“I feel like this was really big,” Hurt said. “That was our first win against them, but it is really going to come down to region. We need that region championship win if we see them again.”

McAfee finished with a game-high 21 points. Kirk and Anthony added 13 points each.

“It is what it is,” Unseld said. “We’ve got about 10 days now, a long time, to try to get healthy and regroup and see what we can get done. The kids played hard. We just had a bad fourth quarter. We took some bad shots. They played harder in the fourth than we did. We had to sit Kirk for a while because of foul trouble, so they got some offensive rebounds, second-chance points. And we had some bad turnovers late. If we just make one of those plays we still win the game, so we are in a good spot. We just have to get back to work.”

Both teams advance to the Region 4 Tournament, which begins March 10 at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WCHS 20 16 14 9 — 59

BGHS 18 12 18 12 — 61

WC — McAfee 21, Kirk 13, Anthony 13, McCombs 7, J. Byrd 4, Carter 1.

BG — Hurt 17, Banks 10, Carpenter 10, Wardlow 7, Bailey 6, Davis 6, Idlett 5.

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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