The Bowling Green boys’ basketball team got back on track Tuesday, pulling away from Barren County 69-53.

Bowling Green (10-8) took the lead into the half and was able to hold off a couple of Barren County runs before a strong finish – snapping a three-game losing streak.

“It was one of those wins we just needed,” BG coach D.G. Sherrill said. “We played some really good teams, some top-20 teams lately and we’ve kind of struggled. We get back after losing that one to Greenwood on Friday and we needed a little confidence boost. This will go a long way to help us get some confidence, get back in the gym and continue to get better.”

Barren County (9-7) was able to establish its presence in the paint, with Gavin Nunn scoring eight points in the first quarter – including a finish at the horn that gave the Trojans a 19-15 advantage.

Bowling Green’s Braylon Anderson got hot in the second quarter, hitting three 3-pointers as part of a 15-4 run that pushed the Purples in front 30-24.

“It felt good to just see the ball go through the net and help my team put points on the board,” Anderson said. “I’m glad I could help my team get that great win that we got tonight.”

Bowling Green’s lead grew to as many as 10 before Nunn’s bucket trimmed the deficit to 37-29 at halftime.

The Trojans opened the second half with seven straight points to pull within a point before Bowling Green answered with a 9-2 spurt to make the score 46-38. Barren County had one final push, whittling the lead down to 47-45 in the opening seconds of the fourth before the Purples scored eight straight to take control and steadily pull away.

“They made a few more plays there,” Barren County coach Warren Cunningham said. “We had some opportunities. We’re just making too many mistakes right now, especially defensively, of not being where we are supposed to be. I thought if we come up with a few rebounds there, that really hurt us. It hurt us in the first half too. They got some loose ball type rebounds where they made some shots. Give them credit, they made a lot of shots and made a lot of plays.”

Anderson led the Purples with 24 points, while Anthony Davis added 14 points.

“Barren County is a well-coached basketball team,” Sherrill said. “They shoot it well. They are a quality team. I have a lot of respect for coach Cunningham. They are always well prepared. I think tonight we rebounded the ball better. Chance Doyle was huge for us tonight. Big rebounds, putbacks-and-1s. I just thought it was a good team win. Barren made some runs at us and we were able to stop those runs and answer those runs. That’s something we’ve kind of struggled with at this point of the season.”

Nunn led the Trojans with 20 points, while Kade Hardy added 14 points.

BCHS 19 10 14 10 – 53

BGHS 15 22 10 22 – 69

BC – Nunn 20, Hardy 14, Byrd 6, Shelton 5, Browning 4, Griggs 2, Pippen 2.

BG – Anderson 24, An. Davis 15, Doyle 9, Akins 9, Muhire 5, Thomas 3, Ar. Davis 2, Brooks 2.

Girls

Barren County 57, Bowling Green 27

The Trojanettes forced 16 turnovers and held the Lady Purples to 24% shooting to earn the road win.

“I thought our defense was really, really good the whole game but especially in the second quarter,” Barren County coach Piper Lindsey said. “They were kind of taking shots that we wanted them to take. We wanted to make sure that we respected the shooters, but obviously kind of packed it in a little bit. I thought we were really, really good defensively.”

Barren County (16-2) led 12-6 after one, then put the game away – closing the first half with a 16-0 run to make the score 31-8. The lead grew to as many as 31 points in the second half as Barren County picked up back-to-back wins over the Lady Purples for the first time since the end of the 2018-19 season.

Shelby Byrd finished with 22 points to lead Barren County.

“We all worked together,” Byrd said. “We kinda clicked together and knew where each other were going to be.”

Maddie Davenport had eight points to lead Bowling Green (7-7).

BCHS 12 19 17 9 – 57

BGHS 6 2 11 8 – 27

BC – Byrd 22, Wilson 6, Burton 6, Cannon 5, Slagle 5, McFall 5, Bragg 4, Hagan 2, Atkinson 2.

BG – Davenport 8, Logan 5, Woods 3, Strow 2, Brown 2, Smith 2, Ware 2, Hall 2, Wells 1.