HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — The Bowling Green girls’ basketball team toyed with the upset before falling Thursday to No. 2 Butler 64-52 in the opening round of the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16.

Bowling Green (29-5) was within striking distance in the final quarter before the Bearettes were able to pull away late and advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.

“We’re not excited about the outcome of the game, but we are excited about the great season,” BG coach LaVonda Johnson said. “Much credit to my seniors because they led the way to help us get back to the Sweet 16. We are definitely pleased for the outcome of us getting here and it is a great experience for us. We hope that in the future it makes our younger players to get back and advance further.

“It was just a good season and much respect to Butler.”

The Lady Purples raced out to a 10-2 lead less than four minutes in before Butler came charging back to take a 16-14 advantage after a putback from Allison Just with 1:21 remaining in the first quarter.

Bowling Green regained the advantage by riding the hot hand of Keely Morrow, who had 16 points in the first half. Morrow’s three-point play with 3:13 left in the half gave the Lady Purples a 29-26 advantage.

Butler held the Lady Purples to one point the rest of the half, allowing the Bearettes to surge in front 33-30.

The deficit grew to 41-32 after a three-point play from Janna Lewis midway through the third period, but the Lady Purples were able to respond.

Bowling Green trimmed the margin to 43-39 heading in the fourth period and added a layup by Tayler Hunter on the opening possession to make the score with 43-41 with 7:48 remaining.

Butler answered with a 10-4 spurt to regain a little separation and Bowling Green was unable to get closer than six in the final five minutes with the Bearettes going 8-for-11 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

“There was a few times were we made some kind of not very intelligent mistakes down the stretch and turned the ball over, but I think the key to this was our defense,” Johnson said. “I thought defensively at times we were out of position. I thought they got easy points, those transition points, and we didn’t make them earn those points like we should.

“That team is very deep and that is what got us in the end.”

Morrow finished with a team-high 18 points, while Oneisha Turner added 16 points in her final game as a Lady Purple.

Jaelynn Penn led Butler with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Janna Lewis added 16 points and Molly Lockhart finished with 10 points.

Butler outrebounded Bowling Green 39-23 with a 13-5 edge in offensive rebounds.

“We knew they were going to play mostly zone,” Butler coach Larry Just said. “We felt like if we could get the ball down to the baseline area, get the ball up on the glass, that we would score. We didn’t necessarily think their guards were good (at) rebounding. They kind of hung out on the top a lot, looking for steals more than rotations down.”

The Bearettes had 18 second-chance points to four for the Lady Purples and outscored BG 42-18 in the paint.

“The first thing to key to victory on my scouting report is to eliminate second-chance points,” Johnson said. “That’s kind of those easy points that they got where you have to use that athletic ability, you have to box them out. You have to want those 50/50 balls and we just didn’t connect down the stretch on that.”

Four Lady Purples – Turner, Hunter, Dejia Moore and Tamia Matthews – played in their final game on Thursday. Bowling Green finished 111-24 the past four seasons, winning two Region  4 titles and finishing runner-up in the region twice.

“It means a lot (to play in the Sweet 16 as a senior),” Moore said. “All four years were tough. Our freshmen year, we made state and played a good team. This year we played a good team too, but I am proud of what we have done the last four years.”

BGHS 19 11 9 13 –  52

BHS 20 13 10 21 –  64

BG – Morrow 18, Turner 16, Matthews 5, Gray 5, Moore 3, Hunter 3, Mimms 2.

BHS – Penn 20, Lewis 16, Lockhart 10, Bowden 6, Just 4, Jeffries 4, Goodlett 4.

— Follow prep sports reporter Micheal Compton on Twitter at twitter.com/mcompton428 or visit bgdailynews.com.