The Bowling Green Purples were apparently not very happy with how they suffered their first loss of the season Monday at the First United Bank Holiday Classic in Madisonville and they decided to take a measure of that out on the Hopkinsville Tigers in the 3rd place game of the tournament Tuesday afternoon. The Purples delivered a 9-2 run to end the opening quarter and never looked back on their way to an 84-57 win over Hoptown.
Coach D.G. Sherrill shuffled his starting lineup and his substitution rotation and got pretty good results from doing so. M.J. Wardlow came out firing to get the Purples rolling, while big man Mason Ritter was more than a handful for the Tigers down in the lane.
Bowling Green led 23-11 after the opening quarter as the Tigers had no defensive answer early for Wardlow. The Purples then opened the second quarter with a 7-0 run to extend the lead to 30-11. Hopkinsville struggled to get in an offensive rhythm, especially from the outside, in the second quarter, and the Purples were able to keep the game at a tempo they liked. The half would end with Bowling Green up 42-21.
Antonio Williams and Daisjaun Mercer combined to score 17 of the Tigers’ 21 first-half points.
Hopkinsville’s offense came out of the break with a better flow to it as the Tigers were able to get some good looks at the basket and to get shots to fall. The problem for Hoptown was the Purples kept making shots too, thus not allowing the Tigers to make much headway as it pertained to cutting into the deficit.
Even with Hopkinsville equalling their first-half offensive output in the third quarter, the Purples were able to extend the lead to 65-42 heading into the final eight minutes.
The Purples would then ride it on out to the finish, coming away with the 27-point win.
Antonio Williams was the Tigers’ top scorer with 18 points. Daisjaun Mercer was the other Hoptown player to hit double-figures with 11. KeiMarion Smith was right behind him with eight.
M.J. Wardlow had a big afternoon for the Purples, finishing with 26 points. Big man Mason Ritter added 16 points and had a big day on the glass.
Hoptown drops to 3-6 with the loss. The Tigers will return to action after Christmas in the City of Middletown Holiday Classic.
HHS – 11 10 21 15 — 57
BGHS – 23 19 23 19 — 84
Hopkinsville – Williams 18, Mercer 11, Smith 8, Manning 6, Leavell 5, Johnson 5, Dudley 4
Bowling Green – M.J. Wardlow 26, Ritter 16, Bailey 8, Idlett 8, Lightning 6, Howard 6, Starks 4, Barber 4, Griffin 2, Carpenter 2, J. Wardlow 2
