The Bowling Green boys’ basketball team did what it could on the court in Friday’s 47-42 win at South Warren.

It was a victory the Purples had to have to have any chance at moving up in seeding in the District 14 Tournament. And while Bowling Green (14-10 overall, 2-4 District 14) was able to force a tie with South Warren, the result wasn’t enough with the Spartans earning the tiebreaker by virtue of the higher RPI following the conclusion of Friday’s games as agreed upon by the district schools.

South Warren edged Bowling Green 0.58171-0.57284 to claim the third seed and a first-round matchup against Greenwood. Bowling Green is the four seed and will play Warren Central, a team it beat in overtime last month.

“I haven’t been in the RPI,” Bowling Green coach D.G. Sherrill said. “I haven’t been in this situation. I’m disappointed that people shut their seasons down. They didn’t make games up so they could set their RPI. We made games up. We had to. We put our backs against the wall. It’s our fault. We put ourselves in this situation, but it is a full basketball season. Aren’t we supposed to play it out? The 18th is the last day the state says the RPI. We will get outvoted whatever happens. I will follow directions. Whoever we play is going to be quality. It’s going to be a good team.”

The Purples won for the fifth time in six games, able to rally back from a slow start in a game where South Warren (13-7, 2-4) was able to dictate the pace.

The Spartans picked up the program’s first-ever win over Bowling Green with a 50-47 win last month and were able to set the tone from the tip in Friday’s rematch – jumping out to an 11-2 advantage before the Purples scored five straight to trim the deficit to four by the end of the first quarter.

South Warren opened the second quarter with a 9-0 spurt, taking its largest lead at 20-7 after a dunk from Clay Willis midway through the period. But Bowling Green was able to get some momentum before halftime, closing with a 10-2 run that made the score 22-17.

Sherrill said once his team settled in defensively, they were able to get going.

“It’s getting them to embrace being very good defensively as a unit,” Sherrill said. “Being more physical as a unit. Rebounding as a unit. You get late in the season and you go into the postseason, you are going to see a lot more games in the 40s and low 50s than the 70s. Our guys are all individually pretty good offensive players. They can go out there and score. Now you are in games where people are grinding. They are physical with us. Early on, we kind of backed away from that. That first time out I went, ‘You got to step forward. You’ve got to be on your toes and step forward now. You can’t get on your heels.’ I said some other things, but I just tried to challenge them a little bit.”

The Spartans scored the first three points to open the second half, but Bowling Green had an answer – a 15-2 run capped by a 3-pointer from Braylon Anderson to surge in front 32-27. South Warren scored the next five to tie it in the final seconds of the quarter, but Bowling Green got two free throws to close the third and make the score 34-32.

South Warren was unable to regain the lead until midway through the fourth, scoring four straight that made the score 42-40 with 4:19 left. The Spartans wouldn’t score again – allowing BG to close it out. A 3 from Anderson gave the Purples the lead for good with 3:10 remaining. Embree Dotson’s putback with 1:22 remaining extended the margin to three. South Warren missed a 3 to tie it late and Anthony Davis sealed it with a layup in the final seconds.

“We’ve been more confident,” Dotson said. “We’ve played as a team more. We are really young this year, so we were playing really young early in the year. We’ve grown up a bunch since (the first game against South Warren).”

Hudson Akins led Bowling Green with 12 points, while Dotson added 10 points.

Owen Shively led the Spartans with 13 points, while Jaxen Decker added 10 points.

“Self-inflicted wounds was what it was,” South Warren coach Carlos Quarles said. “We kept them alive. We were defending well, but when you have bone-headed turnovers it comes back and bites you over and over. We had a couple of defensive lapses where we didn’t talk and they took advantage of all of that.”

BGHS 7 10 17 13 – 47

SWHS 11 11 10 10 – 42

BG – Akins 12, Dotson 10, Muhire 9, Anderson 5, Thomas 5, An. Davis 4, Ar. Davis 2.

SW – Shively 13, Decker 10, Perkins 6, Willis 6, McIntyre 4, Bridges 3.

Girls

Bowling Green 67, South Warren 30

The Lady Purples wrapped up a perfect record in district play with another strong offensive performance in Friday’s win at South Warren.

Bowling Green (12-9 overall, 6-0 District 14) scored a season high in points and made it four straight games scoring at least 51 points – with the Lady Purples scoring at least 59 in three of those games. BG scored 51 or more points only three times prior to this current stretch.

“We’ve made some tweaks and identified some areas that we focused on,” BG coach Calvin Head said. “Honestly, the week of practice last week helped us. We were able to get in there and just hammer it out. They are doing a good job executing what we are trying to do and it helps when you make shots.”

Bowling Green never trailed, scoring the first six points and using an 11-0 run to make the score 22-7 midway through the second quarter. The margin grew to 31-14 by halftime with BG outscoring South Warren 36-16 in the second half.

Jooniper Strow led Bowling Green with 17 points, while Maddie Davenport added 16 points.

“We have really been working on our offense, with our defense leading to offense,” Strow said. “I feel like getting open on the perimeter, it kind of builds. Once we start shooting well we can always get it in and kick it out. Then the post can get open because they are collapsing on our shot.”

Catherine Calvert led South Warren (7-14, 2-4) with eight points.

BGHS 11 20 21 15 – 67

SWHS 7 7 12 4 – 30

BG – Strow 17, Davenport 16, Smith 9, Brown 8, Logan 5, Pratt 4, Smith 4, Woods 2, Ware 2.

SW – Calvert 8, Fugate 6, Shively 5, Osborne 3, Kuzma 3, Gatewood 2, Anderson 1, Price 1, Flourney 1.