SCOTTSVILLE – The Bowling Green girls’ basketball team needed overtime to pass an early-season test, rallying to beat Allen County-Scottsville 68-67 on Tuesday at Patriots Gym.

Bowling Green (2-1) trailed most of the night but rallied to survive huge nights from Murray State signee Sarah Sutton and fellow senior Mason Towery.

“It was just a battle, a fight,” Bowling Green coach Calvin Head said. “They have two of the top players in the region that gave us fits tonight. Kudos to them, but (my team) went to war. They kept fighting and fighting and fighting and they found a way to get a win.”

Allen County-Scottsville (1-2) kept the Lady Purples at bay for the first three quarters, riding a 14-0 run to start the game.

Bowling Green struggled against the Lady Patriots’ 2-3 zone, but a couple of transition buckets and 3-pointers from Sasha Martin and Saniyah Shelton helped the Lady Purples cut the deficit to 17-12 in the second period.

“We definitely attacked more,” BG junior guard Keyozdan Jones said. “We passed it and tried to get inside more to our bigs so we could get a layup.”

ACS’s lead was trimmed to 27-25 by halftime, but the Lady Patriots got a bit of separation with Sutton’s free throw extending the advantage to 36-29 late in the third quarter.

Bowling Green came charging back again, taking its first lead of the night on a 3 by T’Alla Brown that made the score 42-41 with 6:09 left in regulation. The lead changed hands two more times in the next six minutes – with Sutton hitting two free throws to tie the score at 55 with 12.7 seconds left in regulation.

The Lady Purples had a chance to win, but Shelton missed a 3 in the final seconds.

Allen County-Scottsville got the lead in overtime after Towery split a pair of free throws 11 seconds in, but Jones took over with a three-point play and another drive to the basket that pushed BG in front for good 60-56 with 1:47 remaining.

The Lady Purples’ lead grew to 64-58 after a layup in transition by Kiyah Gray in the final minute. Allen County-Scottsville got the deficit down to 66-64 after a three-point play by Towery, but Taylor Ragland hit a pair of free throws with 11.2 seconds left – negating a 3 from Towery in the waning seconds that accounted for the final margin.

Jones led the way for Bowling Green with 23 points, seven in overtime.

“Keyozdon was huge for us,” Head said. “She made big shots. She made big plays. She took care of the basketball. She did all of that with four fouls too. She is calm, cool and collected and made some big plays down the stretch.”

Shelton had 13 points, while Ragland added 10 points for Bowling Green, who forced 24 turnovers – leading to 17 points. The Lady Purples’ bench outscored ACS 20-0.

“We had 24 turnovers,” Allen County-Scottsville coach Greg Dunn said. “When you look at turnovers, that is a lost possession and you give the other team a chance to score. Give Bowling Green credit, we executed our plan like we wanted to and got them down, but we are kind of undermanned right now.

“We’ve got two starters out and our next person off the bench was injured last night in a JV game. I was asking a lot of them to stay out there without a lot of rest. They had a little more depth and when they got those turnovers, it resulted in points.”

Sutton finished with 32 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, while Towery added 20 points.

“I’m really proud of them,” Dunn said. “They played extremely hard. They wanted to win that game so bad. I have no regrets. I feel like we did everything that we could.”

Allen County-Scottsville will host Greenwood at 6 p.m. Thursday. Bowling Green will host John Hardin at 7 p.m. on Friday.

BGHS 4 21 10 20 13 – 68

ACSHS 14 13 11 17 12 – 67

BG – Jones 23, Shelton 13, Ragland 10, Brown 9, Martin 5, K. Gray 4, M. Gray 2, Tisdale 2.

ACS – Sutton 32, Towery 20, Carter 7, Cook 6, McReynolds 2.{&end}