GETAWAY DRIVER: Buzzer beater helps Scotties win in OT

Published 11:38 am Wednesday, February 26, 2025

By Jeff Nations

GLASGOW — JoJo Driver knew the plan.

Down two points with just more than four seconds to go against Warren East in Tuesday’s District 15 Boys’ Basketball Tournament at Barren County High School, the Scotties needed a basket in a hurry to keep their season alive.

Needing to go the length of the floor, the strategy was to get the ball to midcourt and call a time out to set up one final play.

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Instead, JoJo kept driving.

“As soon as I got to halfcourt we had a time out if we needed it, but we didn’t need it,” Driver said. “I got to the rim.”

The senior guard’s buzzer-beating layup forced overtime, and Glasgow prevailed 74-68 in OT to advance to Friday’s district tournament championship against host Barren County and earn a bid into the Region 4 tournament. Game time Friday is 6 p.m.

Glasgow (5-21) was seconds away from defeat after Warren East’s Wyatt Gravil scored on an offensive putback and drew a foul — his made free throw put the Raiders up 56-54 with just more than four seconds showing on the game clock, seemingly the final blow in a frantic finish.

One final chance remained for the Scotties, and the ball ended up in JoJo Driver’s hands on the inbounds play.

“The plan really was to call a timeout,” Glasgow coach Brandon Stockton said. “He wasn’t even supposed to have it at the beginning. I wanted him to try to get the last shot, but when he got to half court and he was in front of everybody … I know how fast he is with the ball. And he just took off and I was like, “I’m not calling a timeout. Let’s see what happens.’ I was going to roll the dice. Hey, senior — this is one of my senior leaders, a senior captain, and he just took it on his own and made the big bucket.”

It was a fantastic comeback by Glasgow, which went more than seven minutes without a point in the third quarter. That allowed Warren East (14-15) to turn a four-point deficit into a 44-33 lead after a Kaleb Prince layup capped a 15-0 run.

The Scotties opened the fourth with five straight points to make the deficit more manageable, so that by the final seconds they had a chance for JoJo Driver to make his show-stopping drive to force OT.

The job wasn’t done.

After JoJo Driver opened the extra period with a layup, the Raiders got back-to-back buckets on a second-chance score from Brenden Bratcher and another Prince layup off a steal at midcourt to push ahead.

The game was tied at 63-all when Glasgow’s Quinn Nunley’s 3-pointer put his team up for good with 1:40 to go.

Bratcher answered with another driving basket to cut the deficit back to 1, but the Scotties’ Jaylen Bradley answered with an and-1 drive for a three-point play and JoJo Driver knocked down a pair of free throw to stretch the lead to six with less than a minute to play.

The Raiders kept pushing, as Bratcher hit a free throw and then came up with an offensive putback to get his team back within three points at 71-68 with 42 seconds left.

The Raiders got the ball back, but missed a 3-pointer before the Scotties broke the press and Landon Minton iced the win with a three-point play off the layup and ensuing foul shot with nine seconds to go.

Bratcher had a huge night for Warren East, scoring a game-high 39 points — including a 19-of-23 effort from the free-throw line. Prince added 15 points for the Raiders.

JoJo Driver scored 20 points to lead the Scotties. Bradley added 16 points, Jerick Martin tallied 15 points and Nunley finished with 10 points in the win.

“When we do stick together and do what coach says and keep our heads down, good things happen,” Martin said.

GHS 16 15 4 21 18 — 74

WEHS 14 15 15 12 12 — 68

GHS — Jo. Driver 20, Bradley 16, Martin 15, Nunley 10, Minton 9, Je. Driver 4.

WEHS –– Bratcher 39, Prince 15, Gravil 4, Miller 4, Deel 3, Hogue 3.

Barren County 50, ACS 43

Fourth-seeded Allen County-Scottsville wasn’t giving an inch to top seed Barren County in Tuesday’s first district semifinal game, but the host Trojans found a way to maintain the lead for all but 22 seconds in a 50-43 win.

“I thought it was the kind of game that we thought it would be,” Barren County coach Warren Cunningham said. “We knew that it would likely be a grind-it-out type of game. It seems like we’ve had a lot of those type of games, whether it be district games or just some other regular-season games.

Barren County (18-12) opened the game by hitting its first five shots and built a 20-10 lead by the end of the first quarter.

ACS (11-18) whittled that lead down to just three by halftime at 29-26, with Patriots guard Kyler Pedigo scoring eight points in the second quarter.

The Trojans opened the second half with a 7-0 run to stretch their lead back to 10, but the Patriots again reeled them in to trail by just five heading into the fourth.

An offensive putback by Chase Ross had ACS within a point at 42-41 with 1:26 to play, but Barren came up with a pivotal sequence right after to secure the win.

First, Kade Hardy threaded his way through the lane for a layup to put the Trojans back up three. Then when ACS missed its ensuing shot and a player swatted the ball toward midcourt on the rebound, Trojans senior guard Brey Bewley outran everyone to scoop up the loose ball and convert a layup to push the lead to five with less than a minute to go.

“All I know is there was a loose ball and I was going to get it,” Bewley said. “I thought I was going to get knocked into the scorer’s table, but I was going to stick my nose in there anyway.”

The Patriots got back within three one more time, but Barren’s Jackson Reese hit a pair of free throws and then Joshua Decker sank two more in the final second to finish off the win.

Bewley led the Trojans with 11 points. Decker and Tate Spillman added 10 points each.

Jackson Morris paced the Patriots with 13 points. Pedigo and Ross finished with 11 points each.

“The game plan was to make them shoot 3s,” ACS coach Jeremy Garrett said. “I think their overall percentage on the year was 28, 29% — if that. So they came out early banging 3s and hitting everything. So that forced us to go man, which gave them mismatches with Decker and (Gavin) Nunn to just pound it inside. We missed some free throws (5-of-10). I think free throws would have won us this game.”

ACSHS 10 16 6 11 — 43

BCHS 20 9 8 13 — 50

ACSHS — Morris 13, Pedigo 11, Ross 11, Robledo 4, Turner 4.

BCHS — Bewley 11, Decker 10, T. Spillman 10, Hardy 7, Clemmons 5, Reese 3, W. Spillman 3, Nunn 1.

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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