Gators claim rare road win against Purples

Published 8:00 am Saturday, January 10, 2026

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The Gators celebrate a layup made by Isaiah Summers (21) in their 71-61 win over the Purples at Bowling Green High School on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, for Greenwood’s first win against Bowling Green since 2022 and the first at BGHS since 2009. (GRACE McDOWELL / Bowling Green Daily News)

Greenwood’s boys’ basketball team brought a fresh mindset into Friday’s road matchup against longtime District 14 rival Bowling Green.

The Gators had not beaten the Purples since 2022 and had not won on BG’s home court in far longer — all the way back in 2009.

Greenwood (11-3 overall, 1-1 District 14) reset the clock on both those streaks Friday night with a mostly comfortable 71-61 victory.

“We were outrebounding them, out-physicaling them — it looked like we just wanted it more,” said Greenwood sophomore Ethan York, who notched a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds in the win. “It was a big game for us — always — and we haven’t won here since like 2009, so we were just coming in here to try and shock the district.”

Greenwood delivered a quick shock to start the game, wiping out the Purples’ 5-0 lead with a 13-point run. Bowling Green (9-7, 0-2 District 14) regrouped and trailed just 14-11 after the first quarter.

The Gators kept pushing, as senior Isaiah Summers (game-high 26 points) opened the second quarter with a spin move through the lane for a basket and York followed with a 3-pointer to push the lead to eight before Hudson Aikins answered with a 3 for BG.

Polls

Greenwood closed the first half with a little 6-2 burst to claim a 29-18 halftime lead.

The Gators appeared to land the knockout blow to start the third, opening with an 8-2 run — York hit a 3 and then scored in the lane, and Martell Tuttle also scored in the paint and drew a foul for an and-one chance.

Down 37-20, the Purples turned to freshman Anthony Davis to bring them back. The talented multi-sport athlete who also starts at quarterback during football season scored eight points during a 12-0 surge that got BG back within five at 37-32 with 2:48 left in the third.

Davis scored 13 of his team-high 17 points in the third as the Purples struggled to keep pace.

“Anthony is a really good basketball player,” Purples coach D.G. Sherrill said. “I know because he’s the quarterback at Bowling Green, everybody is already kind of says that that’s his ordained position. But he could be a college basketball player.”

York finally stopped the Purples’ momentum with a 3-pointer from the wing, then Summers drew a foul in the lane and hit both free throws to push the lead back to 10.

Bowling Green couldn’t make much headway from there, never getting the deficit less than seven points as Greenwood seemed to have an answer for every move. Bowling Green’s offense picked up over the final eight minutes with a 24-point fourth quarter, with Aikens hitting a pair of 3-pointers and scoring 10 points in that span.

Greenwood responded point-for-point with its own 24-point fourth quarter, as Summers scored nine and Kash Sampson had eight points in the final period. The Gators did considerable damage at the free-throw line in the fourth, hitting 11-of-14 attempts.

“The good news about I guess when you graduate a class as special as the one we had and you have a new group of guys, they’re fresh,” Greenwood coach Will McCoy said. “They don’t necessarily have to go into that narrative of man, we haven’t beat them in awhile. This was really that core group’s first opportunity at them and so right now in their brain they’re 1-0 against them. They’re fearless and they play with a chip on their shoulder, and just were able to piece together a really solid performance. They handled Bowling Green’s first opening punch and then from there forward we really didn’t look back.”

Sampson scored 11 points to join Summers and York as double-digit scorers for the Gators, who were set to host Muhlenberg County on Saturday.

Aikens finished with 13 points and Braylon Anderson had 10 points for the Purples, who were set to take on Madison Central in the Joe B & Denny Classic on Saturday at Montgomery County High School.

GHS 14 15 18 24 — 71

BGHS 11 7 19 24 — 61

GHS — Summers 26, York 19, Sampson 11, Huff 6, Tuttle 6, Meador 3.

BGHS — An. Davis 17, Aikens 13, Anderson 10, Ar. Davis 7, Brown 4, Staten 3, Woodard 3, Dotson 2, Muhire 2.

Girls

Bowling Green 55, Greenwood 29

Host Bowling Green turned in a relentless rebounding performance to steadily pull away from District 14 rival Greenwood for a 55-29 home win Friday.

The Lady Purples’ two seniors led the way as each just fell short of a double-double. Kori Ware tallied nine points and 14 rebounds, while Aniyah Smith finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in the win.

“My two seniors played like seniors,” Bowling Green coach Calvin Head said. “We’ve been challenging them to do that. Now it’s got to be consistent.”

Leading 12-8 at the end of the first quarter, Bowling Green (7-5, 2-0 District 14) outscored the Lady Gators 14-2 in the second quarter to grab a 26-10 lead at the break.

Greenwood (6-8, 1-1 District 14) was outrebounded 44-21 in the loss.

“Rebounding is the main thing (Head) is hard on us about, whether you’re a guard, point guard, post, he’s’ on us about that,” Ware said. “So I feel like, yeah, that was the biggest part of the win.”

Molly Spidel finished with team highs of 12 points and eight rebounds for the Lady Gators, who host Todd County Central on Tuesday.

Jooniper Strow tied for team-high honors with 10 points, and Amaya Brown added nine points for the Lady Purples.

Bowling Green was set to visit Henderson County on Saturday.

GHS 8 2 6 13 — 29

BGHS 12 14 14 15 — 55

GHS — Spidel 12, Hendrix 6, Morrison 5, Morgan 4, Buser 2.

BGHS — A. Smith 10, Strow 10, Brown 9, Ware 9, Davenport 7, Hall 5, Graves 4, C. Smith 1.