The Allen County-Scottsville girls’ basketball team made another early-season statement with a 47-40 win over Bowling Green in the State Farm Fourth Region Challenge on Saturday at Bowling Green High School.

Allen County-Scottsville (4-1) nearly lost a double-digit halftime lead, but was able to hang on late and snap a four game losing streak to the Lady Purples. It was the first win against Bowling Green since Jan. 26, 2016.

“It really is (a statement win),” ACS coach Gary DeWitt said. “That’s what we wanted to do. I wanted to prove that we can play with anybody in the region and we’ve done that. We beat Metcalfe. We beat Bowling Green and hopefully we can play Barren County really well (on Thursday). That’s our hope.”

Bowling Green (3-2) started strong with a 10-2 run to build a 10-4 lead in the first quarter. Allen County-Scottsville answered with eight straight to tie before Zara Hall’s bucket in the paint in the final seconds pushed BG back in front 12-10.

A layup by Amaya Brown to open the second quarter pushed the lead to four, before the Lady Patriots took control. ACS went on a 15-0 run – including 10 points from Avery Morris – to push the lead into double digits. BG got a bucket by Jooniper Strow to end a six-minute drought, but still trailed 27-17 at the break.

Bowling Green started to chip away in the third. After scoring 17 points in the first half, Morris was held scoreless in the third – with the Lady Purples closing to 33-28 late in the quarter.

The Lady Purples continued to inch closer with a 3 from Strow making the score 40-39 with 2:47 remaining. After a free throw from Morris made it a two-point game, Bowling Green had a couple of chances to tie but couldn’t get the ball to fall. Debora Patrick scored on a layup on the other end to make the score 43-39 and BG was unable to get closer than three the rest of the way.

“We just did a great job tonight,” DeWitt said. “I was so proud of our guards. I was so proud of our posts. I’m so proud of our team because I really believed we could do this. I really did.”

Morris led the Lady Patriots with 24 points, while Allison Ford added a career-high 12 points.

“I feel like our team has definitely prepared for this,” Morris said. “I think we played so well together. Some of our shots weren’t falling at the end of the game, but overall we came back and played good defense and scored when we needed to. I thought we played great.”

Maddie Davenport led Bowling Green with 10 points, while Brown added nine points.

“We left too many points on the floor,” Bowling Green coach Calvin Head said. “The second quarter for us was not good at all. Avery had 17 in the first half, 17 of their 27. We didn’t have a very good scout report discipline at all. The second half was much better. We had our moment. Had it down to one with the ball twice. Missed some bunnies around the rim. We have to do a better job of not digging a hole against good basketball teams. It’s a learning thing.”

Allen County-Scottsville is scheduled to play at Logan County in the Class 2A Sectional semifinal at 6 p.m. on Monday. Bowling Green travels to Christian County at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

ACSHS 10 17 8 12 – 47

BGHS 12 5 11 12 – 40

ACS – Morris 24, Ford 12, Law 5, Patrick 3, K. Marr 3.

BG – Davenport 10, Brown 9, Strow 7, Smith 7, Ware 2, Hall 2, Pratt 2, Graves 1.