Trojans shoot past Scotties for District 15 title

Published 10:49 am Saturday, March 1, 2025

By Jeff Nations

GLASGOW — When Barren County needed to make a shot in Friday’s District 15 Boys’ Basketball Tournament championship, the Trojans turned to senior Tate Spillman again and again.

Spillman answered the call with eight makes, including five 3-pointers, to finish with a game-high 27 points as the slow-starting host team pulled away from cross-town rival Glasgow for a 66-53 win.

Barren County (19-12) missed its first eight shots from the field before Spillman finally connected on a 3-pointer with 3:27 left in the first quarter. Then he it another — he finished the first period with all three made shots for the Trojans, tallying 10 of his team’s 13 first-quarter points as the Scotties led 15-13 after one.

Email newsletter signup

“It kind of loosened us up a little bit, him making those shots,” Barren County coach Warren Cunningham said of Spillman. “I thought that was huge. We seemed a little timid to start. We were passing up some open looks that we haven’t been doing. I thought after we settled in there, we were pretty good.”

Another Spillman 3-pointer gave the Trojans their first lead — which they would not relinquish the rest of the game — at 18-17 with 5:10 left in the first half.

Barren County closed the second quarter with a 6-0 run to stretch its lead to 33-22 by halftime, with Spillman already at 19 points for the night.

“They started off strong and coach told me, he was like ‘Go get the ball and go do something,'” Spillman said. “Once I got going, everybody else started doing their thing too and there was no looking back from there.”

Glasgow (5-22), which knocked off Warren East in overtime to reach Friday’s championship, stayed on the periphery through the third quarter — as close as six on a few occasions — and trailed 45-35 heading into the fourth.

The Scotties were within three at 50-47 after Colby Brewster’s offensive putback capped a 6-0 run with 3:28 to play, but Barren County had the answer — back-to-back 3-pointers by Kade Hardy and Spillman pushed the lead back to nine. Glasgow never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

“I thought Tate’s was the dagger,” Cunningham said. “I thought when he made that, it kind of took the air out of them a little bit and finished them off.”

Barren County was 9-of-21 (42.9%) from 3-point range and shot 42.6% overall. The Scotties missed all 10 tries from 3-point range while shooting 51.1% from the field — in last year’s District 15 championship, Glasgow shot a stellar 75% in a 74-62 win against the Trojans.

“We definitely thought about last year,” Spillman said. “We thought we should have won last year and we definitely came into this with a chip on our shoulder. My sophomore year, we came up a little short and think we should have won that one also. So we had a pretty good week of practice and we came in ready to play.”

Jaylen Bradley led Glasgow with 17 points. Jerick Martin added 12 points, and JoJo Driver and Landon Minton tallied 10 points each.

“We gave up some easy baskets,” Scotties coach Brandon Stockton said.Josh “They got going early and when they start going early in their home gym and they make their shots, they’re hard to beat. We just never got those stops that we needed to kind of take the air out of them.”

Joshua Decker added a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Trojans, who will take on District 14 runner-up Warren Central in the Region 4 Tournament quarterfinals on March 10 at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Glasgow drew District 14 tournament champion Bowling Green for a Region 4 opening-round game March 11 at Diddle.

GHS 15 7 13 18 — 53

BCHS 13 20 12 21 — 66

GHS — Bradley 17, Martin 12, Jo. Driver 10, Minton 10, Bartley 2, Brewster 2.

BCHS — T. Spillman 27, Decker 12, Hardy 8, Bewley 6, Reese 4, Clemmons 3, Blackburn 2, Nunn 2, W. Spillman 2.

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

email author More by Jeff

More Sports

Tops set to face FIU to open final homestand

Lady Tops look for revenge on final road trip

WKU’s Blanco, Hermanova earn CUSA tennis honors

Lady Tops’ Hackett named CUSA Women’s Golfer of the Week

Print Article