Bowling Green 73 - Warren East 62

Warren East High School, Bristow, Kentucky 02-01-08

Friday night's game at Warren East High School could've featured players wearing tight shorts and skin tight uniform tops because it was a throw-back atmosphere. There were actually people in the stands. I thought I was going to have to park in downtown Bristow and walk to the high school because the crowd was so large. It was like the old days. I checked to see if I had a mullet, a Members Only jacket, Vans, and a Swatch with the goofy guards that made it impossible to tell what time it was.

My daughter and I walked into a battle between the Lady Raiders and the Lady Purples. East had Bowling Green down, but the Purples fought back and made it a game. East prevailed, but the ladies set the mood for the boys game.

While the teams warmed-up, the Warren East pep band started playing Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train." It fit the mood, but I wondered if that's a good song for a high school band.

"I've listened to preachers
I've listened to fools
I've watched all the dropouts
Who make their own rules."

Somebody phone Tipper Gore!

I figured with the pressing and high flying offenses of the Purples and the Raiders that we might be "going off the rails on a crazy train."

There's no love lost between these two teams and these two schools. Bowling Green is a city school and populated with city kids. Warren East is a rural school with an interesting mix of suburban kids and farm kids. I'm good friends with a Warren East alumnus who calls Purples backers, "those snotty Bowling Green fans." I know Bowling Green alumni who call East grads "hayseed plow boys."

Don't kill the messenger, folks. I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm fascinated, however, by the differences that make up good high school rivalries, and the East-Bowling Green one is among the best. I remember from the Male-Manual rivalry that we were blessed with superior intellect, better looks, and greater athletic ability while the folks from Manual had none of these attributes.

The two teams went at each other like this game had major implications in the district and the region. Wait, it did. After dropping a game at Warren Central, the Purples needed a district win, but it's a tall order to try to sneak into the Raiders' roost and wrestle a victory from them.

Each team tested the other in the first quarter. The two teams sort of mirror each other. Both like to play man-to-man, pressing defense, and they both balance the offensive end with great penetration and perimeter shooting. At the end of one, the score was tied at 14. Within my mind I could hear the ghostly voice of Joe Dean, Sr., saying, "we've got ourselves a barn burner, Tom (Hammond). It might be 25 outside but in here we've got a barn burner."

The Purples picked up their defensive pressure in the second quarter and forced Warren East to take tough shots. The Raiders couldn't find the basket in the second quarter. Both teams had trouble hanging onto the ball, but Bowling Green seemed to be more prone to turnovers. My good friend Eddie Dillard swore that the ball was over inflated, but he wouldn't go out there and test it between quarters.

With 3:29 left in the half, Bowling Green had a 29-15 lead on East and seemed like they were going to take command of the game. However, the Raiders answered with a 7-2 run to end the half to pull with in nine, 31-22. Shenard Holton led the Raiders with 10 points at halftime, while Jordan Ellis added seven. Eric Smith for Bowling Green led the way with nine points, and D.L. Moore and Jared Carpenter each had five.

If it was a barn burner, then Bowling Green opened the third quarter like they were going to burn the thing down to the foundation. Jeb Richardson hit three three pointers to open the half, one of which was from about 22 feet. Joe Dean would've erupted with "Sttttrrraaaaaahng Muuusic in Bristow kay-wye, Tom!" Richardson was nailing treys, but, as always, the Purples' defense is what created the offense. When they decide to play active defense, this Bowling Green squad is tough to beat.

By the 4:41 mark, Bowling Green had a commanding 45-27 lead on their rival. Warren East Coach Russell Malone called a time and met his players on the court and delivered a lip whipping on his players that we could hear in the stands. I don't think he was wishing them Groundhog's Day greetings and likely telling them that their six more weeks of winter would be spent running "suicides" on the gym floor.

After the Purples built a 22 point lead on them, Warren East responded to Coach Russell and closed the third with a furious 9-1 run that cut the lead to 52-39.

No one thought that East was out of the game. They are too good of a team to roll over and die, especially for an arch-rival.

In the fourth quarter, East threw a 2-2-1 trapping press on the Purps, and they had a tough time moving the ball up the court. D.L. Moore was on the bench with foul trouble, but Coach D.G. Sherrill put him back in the game because he is a press buster. Moore is signed to play wide receiver at South Carolina next year, and he knows how to use his 6'6" frame to snag passes going over a press.

Also, Jordan Ellis fouled out early the fourth quarter. I've seen East play three times this season, and all three times Ellis has fouled out with plenty of time left in the game. Ellis is a very good athlete, but he gets behind on defense and swats too much. Jordan! Move your feet and avoid the seat!

East managed to cut the lead to 10, but they could never get over the hump in this one. Bowling Green won 73-62.

If I have everything right, that means every team in the 14th District is .500 in district games. Bowling Green, East, and Greenwood are all 3-3 and Central is 2-2. One must ask, does seeding really matter in this district? Two very good basketball teams will end their seasons on the first night of the district tournament.

Shenard Holton for Warren East led all scorers with 19. Jordan Ellis and DeAngelo Kirk each had 13. Bowling Green had a balanced scoring sheet with D.L. Moore and Jared Carpenter scoring 10, while Jeb Richardson had 10.

OBSERVATIONS

Warren East Career Day: After a referee called a foul on Warren East in the third quarter, the East student section chanted, "I'm blind. I'm deaf. I wanna be a ref." They even had the Bowling Green fans chuckling. That gets a Pick and Roll "Three Thumbs Up" Award.

Killing Me Softly: After what seemed like a bad call, Coach Russell Malone kept yelling, "You're killin me. You're killing me!" at one of the officials. The Bowling Green fans started calling him Bobby Knight.

He Does Wear #22: Jerron Nixon did a great Curly Neal impersonation in Friday's ballgame at Warren East. The floor was dusty and players kept losing their footing. Nixon slipped down to one knee, slid several feet, and popped back up without ever breaking his dribble. The great Harlem Globetrotter, Curly Neal, wowed crowds with a trick that looked like Nixon's move.

Donuts on Dunks: It had been since Scotty Hopson threw a couple down on the Purples in December that I had seen someone in a high school game dunk the ball. On Friday night, East's Jordan Ellis and Bowling Green's D.L. Moore each had a dunk. Ellis has great leaping ability and threw down a one handed jam on a fast break amongst two Purples.