Gators end regular season on high note

Published 4:38 pm Saturday, February 22, 2025

By Micheal Compton

The Greenwood boys’ basketball team finished the regular season on a high note, winning an 89-80 shootout against Warren East on Friday at Greenwood High School.

Greenwood (17-12) had one of its most efficient offensive nights of the season, shooting 56.7%, to race past the Raiders and gather a bit of momentum heading into next week’s District 14 Tournament.

“Momentum is huge in this sport — and confidence,” Greenwood coach Will McCoy said. “I’m hopeful both of those things were able to be takeaways for our team tonight. We played a really good team that gave us a heck of an offensive showing on their end as well.”

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The Gators and the Raiders matched each other shot for shot in the first half, with no one able to get the edge.

Warren East (14-14) led by as many as five points in the first quarter, but the Gators rallied to tie the game 17-17 heading into the second.

Greenwood led by as many as seven in the second quarter, but this time the Raiders were the ones to rally back — with Brenden Bratcher’s steal and dunk tying the score 38-all at halftime.

The game was still tied 47-47 after a 3 from Warren East’s Jacob Miller early in the second half, before Greenwood took control. The Gators used a 7-0 spurt to take the lead for good. The Raiders got as close as three late in the third quarter before Nick Simpson’s bucket in the final seconds made the score 64-59 heading into the fourth.

“That was the swing of the game,” McCoy said. “There have been a lot of games over our last 15 games where the third quarter has been our kryptonite. To see us come out tonight and handle their runs and handle a couple of punches, that hopefully shows a lot of growth in our guys.”

Greenwood maintained control in the fourth. The lead grew to as many as 10 points on several occasions, with Warren East unable to get closer than four in the final eight minutes.

Four Gators finished scoring in double figures, with Simpson leading the way with 26 points. Asher Pettus had 18 points and nine rebounds, eclipsing the 1,000-career point milestone in the final home game of his career.

“It’s a dream come true,” Pettus said. “My buddies are over there holding a goofy poster for me. All of it is awesome. I had a brother and sister who went here. I’ve always been in this gym since I was a little baby. It’s always been a dream of mine to be up on that board (honoring players who scored 1,000 career points). I’m really excited to see it up there.”

Garrett Hatcher added 12 points, while Kash Sampson finished with 10 points.

Bratcher led the Raiders with 27 points. Kaleb Prince had 24 points, Jordan Hogue added 14 points and Miller finished with 12 points.

The Raiders head into the postseason on a five-game losing streak.

“I’m not worried about the five losses in a row,” Warren East coach Kyle Benge said. “You look at the competition we were playing in those five games. We went Fairdale, Warren Central, Caverna, on the road (at Monroe County) without your best player and come to Greenwood without two starters, so we are going to be OK. I thought we fought really hard tonight. Greenwood is a really good team. They shot it well tonight.

“We know what we have to do for Tuesday. That’s kind of our mindset. We are one game away from getting to Diddle, so that is our focus right now.”

Warren East will face Glasgow in the opening round of the District 15 Tournament at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Barren County High School.

Greenwood will face Warren Central in the District 14 Tournament at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Bowling Green High School.

“We are hoping to kind of take that mentality of, we are the underdog and everybody in the state from media to opposing coaches to probably our players’ moms and dads think that Warren Central is going to win that game,” McCoy said. “I’m hoping our locker room can buy into our game plan, buy into some confidence and keep that thing close — unlike what we did over here. Let’s just go see what happens.”

WEHS 17 21 21 21 — 80

GHS 17 21 26 25 — 89

WE — Bratcher 27, Prince 24, Hogue 14, Miller 12, Sloan 3.

GHS — Simpson 26, Pettus 18, Hatcher 12, Sampson 10, Meador 9, Tuttle 7, Murrell 5, Reiter 2.

Warren East 50, Greenwood 36, Girls

Playing for the first time in a week, the Lady Raiders were able to shake off some rust and pick up a ninth straight win heading into next week’s District 15 Tournament.

“We were thankful to get this game in,” Warren East coach Jenny Neville said. “It had been almost a week since we had played, so we needed to get this game in. We did show a little rust in the first half. I felt like you could tell we had been off for a little bit. The second half I felt like we made some adjustments and the girls did a good job of making those adjustments.”

Warren East (19-6) trailed for most of the first quarter before using a 9-0 run to surge in front 17-11. The Lady Raiders never trailed again, extending the margin to 24-13 before Greenwood (11-16) was able to trim the deficit to 27-19 by halftime.

Greenwood scored a basket to open the second half to inch closer, before a 3 from Madison Lawson shifted the momentum back to the Lady Raiders.

Warren East’s lead grew to 40-26 heading into the fourth. Greenwood scored eight straight to get within striking distance, but the comeback ended there — with Warren East using an 8-0 spurt to seal the first victory against Greenwood since 2020.

Kennedy Lawson led Warren East with 16 points. Madison Lawson had 10 points, while Lydia Jones finished with 12 points and 18 rebounds.

“I think I just happen to have a nose for the ball,” Jones said. “I know our team does not bring much height to the table at all and I just have to play a role. I might not be able to go out there and shoot 3s like some others, but I know I have to bring it to the table. I just have to read the ball off the basket and go get it.”

Anzlee Hendrix led the Lady Gators with 13 points, while Molly Spidel added 12 points.

Greenwood will face South Warren in the District 14 Tournament on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Bowling Green High School.

Warren East will face Allen County-Scottsville in the District 15 Tournament on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Barren County High School.

“Allen County is a great team,” Neville said. “It’s a battle every time we play. Even going back to last year, every team in the 15th District is strong. We respect every team and we have to come out and be ready.”

WEHS 14 13 13 10 — 50

GHS 11 8 7 10 — 36

WE — K. Lawson 16, Jones 12, M. Lawson 10, Wardlow 6, Carver 5, Collins 1.

GHS — Hendrix 13, Spidel 12, Morrison 6, White 3, Tandy 2.

About Micheal Compton

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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