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.
Showing posts with label Warren East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warren East. Show all posts
Friday, February 1, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Warren East 85 - Metcalfe County 70
Warren East High School, Bristow, Kentucky 01-12-08
It's a wonder that a Star Trek convention didn't break out at Saturday's game at Warren East. The Raiders featured DeAngelo Kirk, and the Metcalfe County Hornets had a center named Will Warf. Kirk and Warf? I started looking for geeky people wearing Star Trek uniforms walking around talking about how they spent last summer at Klingon Language Camp.
The real story from Metcalfe County's game against Warren East is that their star player, Trey Shirley, missed the game due to an illness. No one seems to know what is wrong with the kid, but a couple of Hornets fans told me that they had to run a CAT scan on him last night. All the Metcalfe fans seemed worried about the Shirley and less concerned that their team would be short a player who averages over 20 points a game.
I'm sure that Edmonton has a good hospital. I know that in some small towns if someone needed a CAT scan it might just involve a cat.
Pennyrile Pick and Roll looks forward to seeing Trey Shirley back on the hardwood and wishes him and his family all the best.
There was a large contingent of Metcalfe County fans at the ballgame. I heard one alumnus say, "you can't hide that Hornet pride." They have every reason to be proud, too, because they rolled into Friday's game with an impressive 13-1 record, with their only loss coming to a school from Washington, D.C. They were undefeated in the region, too.
The Metcalfe County fans were quiet. The only buzz coming from that swarm of maroon clad hornets was about their star player not being with the team. In fact, it is possibly the quietest basketball crowd of which I've been a part. Both sets of fans sat in the stands almost as if they were in church. When the teams started playing, the players didn't even chatter.
In the first quarter Metcalfe and East went at each other like good basketball teams do in a big game. I won't say that they swapped buckets, but one team would surge, and the other would respond. Both teams like to press and will press even after missed baskets. Metcalfe County even pressed after a turnover. They do it well, too.
At the end of the first quarter, the Raiders had a precarious 18-16 lead.
In the second quarter, Metcalfe County's guards kept challenging Warren East's interior defense, and the Raiders kept blocking their shots. I thought maybe they should try to spread Warren East's defense out a little with some perimeter shooting, and maybe that's what the Hornets lack without Trey Shirley in the lineup.
I would later discover something about Metcalfe County that I have missed all season. I think it is something that everyone has missed. They aren't just Trey Shirley. They are a good basketball team, and Will Warf -- the very un-Klingon like post player for the Hornets -- is probably the guy that holds Metcalfe together. I should note that he is Metcalfe's starting quarterback on the gridiron and won back-to-back Region Three Player-of-the-Year awards.
In the second quarter, however, Shenard Holton and Jordan Ellis made some big plays for the Raiders. I like the athletic ability of Ellis, but he's got to learn to move his feet on defense and quit slapping at defenders. He had his third foul with 5:22 left in the half. Ouch! He can't serve his team while doing a Bill Keightly impersonation in the first half.
Warren East expanded their lead to 35-31.
In the third quarter, Metcalfe opened with a tricky match up 3-2 zone. It was a good defense, but they couldn't close the gap between the guards and the baseline players. East's Shenard Holton kept finding a way into the middle of the zone and kept finding ways to score. He finished the game with 15 points.
The Hornets, however, outscored Warren East 18-17 in the quarter and stayed within striking distance of the Raiders.
The fourth quarter didn't turn out too well for Metcalfe. Holton kept getting loose in their zone, and DeAngelo Kirk bombed a couple of three pointers from the wing and hit a couple of nice looking pull-up jump shots -- a lost or dying art in all of basketball. The Hornets' defense seemed to be unable to find Kirk on the wing, and he made them pay for it.
Will Warf kept them in the game. How can someone with a Klingon name counter a team with a player named Kirk? Warf made some impressive moves around the basket in the final frame, and that's when I realized that he's a heck of a basketball player. He's gritty, hard-nosed, and he would not surrender to Kirk and his Raiders. Warf finished the game with 27 points and 13 boards. He also made himself one of my favorite players in the region. I look forward to seeing him play in Diddle Arena in March.
Warren East won the game 85-70. That score does not give a good perspective on what type of ballgame Saturday's game was. The game got away from Metcalfe County in the final minutes. The Hornets played Clinton County the night before in Edmonton, so they looked a little tired. However, Warren East played Allen County-Scottsville the night before and looked fine.
I almost gave my "Charlie Brown Blockhead Award" to Winston Harbison for Metcalfe County. Late in the game, he was whistled for a foul, and he mouthed off to the official, who promptly gave him a technical. I could see the frustration on Harbison's face, so I forgave him. I saw a competitor who doesn't like to lose when he came over to the bench.
The technical foul had no effect on the game except to change the margin of victory. It gave the Raiders a bunch of points near the end of the game, and it took any life left in the Hornets.
Even though the lost, I'm still high on this Metcalfe County squad. The Hornet seniors played on their team that made it to the regional final two years ago (that's off the top of my head, so I hope I'm right), and they play very well together. In the wide open Fourth, several teams have a shot at going to the Sweet Sixteen, but I think Metcalfe has the best chance.
OBSERVATIONS
Yecccch!: Hey, Warren East! Clean your dang bleachers. I started to think that they purposely poured Coca-Cola all over the visitor's bleachers. It reminded me of going to the 99 cent movies at the old Bowling Green Mall when I was in college. I left my shoes in the garage when I got home last night. I've stepped in less nasty stuff at the Kentucky State Fair.
Twin Towers: Forget Bowie and Turpin or Robinson and Duncan. Metcalfe County has Grant and Russell Kindred. I don't know their heights, but they are actually twins. I list their heights at "tall" and be done with it.
Brothers in Arms?: I noticed that the Metcalfe County Roster features three kids with the last name "Shirley." I saw Patrick and Latrel Shirley on Saturday night, and I'm going to take a wild guess that they are not brothers by relation. I'm also going to guess that one of them may be the brother of missing Trey Shirley.
A Proud Tradition: Warren East has a great basketball tradition. They've won 9 Fourth Region championships, and they made it to the state semi-finals in 1997. With guys like DeAngelo Kirk, Jordan Ellis, and Shenard Holton on their squad, they have a real good chance of winning "one for the other thumb." If Russell Malone can get them to play defense without fouling, they could make it past the first week of March.
Chattering Players: I've noticed it in both baseball and basketball in recent years. Players no longer chatter. They don't even squawk to let a teammate know that they're open. Everyone gripes about trash-talking players these days, but I see it exactly opposite. When I was in high school players chattered all the time on the field and on the court. I remember Central High School's players like they were an entire team of Meadowlark Lemons. None of it was mean and a lot of it was funny. Metcalfe County's players walk on and off the court like they're filing into a Sunday School class.
It's a wonder that a Star Trek convention didn't break out at Saturday's game at Warren East. The Raiders featured DeAngelo Kirk, and the Metcalfe County Hornets had a center named Will Warf. Kirk and Warf? I started looking for geeky people wearing Star Trek uniforms walking around talking about how they spent last summer at Klingon Language Camp.
The real story from Metcalfe County's game against Warren East is that their star player, Trey Shirley, missed the game due to an illness. No one seems to know what is wrong with the kid, but a couple of Hornets fans told me that they had to run a CAT scan on him last night. All the Metcalfe fans seemed worried about the Shirley and less concerned that their team would be short a player who averages over 20 points a game.
I'm sure that Edmonton has a good hospital. I know that in some small towns if someone needed a CAT scan it might just involve a cat.
Pennyrile Pick and Roll looks forward to seeing Trey Shirley back on the hardwood and wishes him and his family all the best.
There was a large contingent of Metcalfe County fans at the ballgame. I heard one alumnus say, "you can't hide that Hornet pride." They have every reason to be proud, too, because they rolled into Friday's game with an impressive 13-1 record, with their only loss coming to a school from Washington, D.C. They were undefeated in the region, too.
The Metcalfe County fans were quiet. The only buzz coming from that swarm of maroon clad hornets was about their star player not being with the team. In fact, it is possibly the quietest basketball crowd of which I've been a part. Both sets of fans sat in the stands almost as if they were in church. When the teams started playing, the players didn't even chatter.
In the first quarter Metcalfe and East went at each other like good basketball teams do in a big game. I won't say that they swapped buckets, but one team would surge, and the other would respond. Both teams like to press and will press even after missed baskets. Metcalfe County even pressed after a turnover. They do it well, too.
At the end of the first quarter, the Raiders had a precarious 18-16 lead.
In the second quarter, Metcalfe County's guards kept challenging Warren East's interior defense, and the Raiders kept blocking their shots. I thought maybe they should try to spread Warren East's defense out a little with some perimeter shooting, and maybe that's what the Hornets lack without Trey Shirley in the lineup.
I would later discover something about Metcalfe County that I have missed all season. I think it is something that everyone has missed. They aren't just Trey Shirley. They are a good basketball team, and Will Warf -- the very un-Klingon like post player for the Hornets -- is probably the guy that holds Metcalfe together. I should note that he is Metcalfe's starting quarterback on the gridiron and won back-to-back Region Three Player-of-the-Year awards.
In the second quarter, however, Shenard Holton and Jordan Ellis made some big plays for the Raiders. I like the athletic ability of Ellis, but he's got to learn to move his feet on defense and quit slapping at defenders. He had his third foul with 5:22 left in the half. Ouch! He can't serve his team while doing a Bill Keightly impersonation in the first half.
Warren East expanded their lead to 35-31.
In the third quarter, Metcalfe opened with a tricky match up 3-2 zone. It was a good defense, but they couldn't close the gap between the guards and the baseline players. East's Shenard Holton kept finding a way into the middle of the zone and kept finding ways to score. He finished the game with 15 points.
The Hornets, however, outscored Warren East 18-17 in the quarter and stayed within striking distance of the Raiders.
The fourth quarter didn't turn out too well for Metcalfe. Holton kept getting loose in their zone, and DeAngelo Kirk bombed a couple of three pointers from the wing and hit a couple of nice looking pull-up jump shots -- a lost or dying art in all of basketball. The Hornets' defense seemed to be unable to find Kirk on the wing, and he made them pay for it.
Will Warf kept them in the game. How can someone with a Klingon name counter a team with a player named Kirk? Warf made some impressive moves around the basket in the final frame, and that's when I realized that he's a heck of a basketball player. He's gritty, hard-nosed, and he would not surrender to Kirk and his Raiders. Warf finished the game with 27 points and 13 boards. He also made himself one of my favorite players in the region. I look forward to seeing him play in Diddle Arena in March.
Warren East won the game 85-70. That score does not give a good perspective on what type of ballgame Saturday's game was. The game got away from Metcalfe County in the final minutes. The Hornets played Clinton County the night before in Edmonton, so they looked a little tired. However, Warren East played Allen County-Scottsville the night before and looked fine.
I almost gave my "Charlie Brown Blockhead Award" to Winston Harbison for Metcalfe County. Late in the game, he was whistled for a foul, and he mouthed off to the official, who promptly gave him a technical. I could see the frustration on Harbison's face, so I forgave him. I saw a competitor who doesn't like to lose when he came over to the bench.
The technical foul had no effect on the game except to change the margin of victory. It gave the Raiders a bunch of points near the end of the game, and it took any life left in the Hornets.
Even though the lost, I'm still high on this Metcalfe County squad. The Hornet seniors played on their team that made it to the regional final two years ago (that's off the top of my head, so I hope I'm right), and they play very well together. In the wide open Fourth, several teams have a shot at going to the Sweet Sixteen, but I think Metcalfe has the best chance.
OBSERVATIONS
Yecccch!: Hey, Warren East! Clean your dang bleachers. I started to think that they purposely poured Coca-Cola all over the visitor's bleachers. It reminded me of going to the 99 cent movies at the old Bowling Green Mall when I was in college. I left my shoes in the garage when I got home last night. I've stepped in less nasty stuff at the Kentucky State Fair.
Twin Towers: Forget Bowie and Turpin or Robinson and Duncan. Metcalfe County has Grant and Russell Kindred. I don't know their heights, but they are actually twins. I list their heights at "tall" and be done with it.
Brothers in Arms?: I noticed that the Metcalfe County Roster features three kids with the last name "Shirley." I saw Patrick and Latrel Shirley on Saturday night, and I'm going to take a wild guess that they are not brothers by relation. I'm also going to guess that one of them may be the brother of missing Trey Shirley.
A Proud Tradition: Warren East has a great basketball tradition. They've won 9 Fourth Region championships, and they made it to the state semi-finals in 1997. With guys like DeAngelo Kirk, Jordan Ellis, and Shenard Holton on their squad, they have a real good chance of winning "one for the other thumb." If Russell Malone can get them to play defense without fouling, they could make it past the first week of March.
Chattering Players: I've noticed it in both baseball and basketball in recent years. Players no longer chatter. They don't even squawk to let a teammate know that they're open. Everyone gripes about trash-talking players these days, but I see it exactly opposite. When I was in high school players chattered all the time on the field and on the court. I remember Central High School's players like they were an entire team of Meadowlark Lemons. None of it was mean and a lot of it was funny. Metcalfe County's players walk on and off the court like they're filing into a Sunday School class.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Warren East @ Warren Central 12-07-07
There's a great big question hanging over the Fourth Region this basketball season: can the Warren Central Dragons hoist the regional championship trophy for the seventh time in as many years? It pops up in nearly every discussion, and it seems to monopolize the thoughts of every basketball fan in the Fourth. Every other team in the Region is tired of Warren Central storming through games like a loose herd of wild buffalo (thank you, Billy Jo Shaver), and they are ready to do something about it.
Throughout the football season the Warren East Raiders assumed the role of Rodney Dangerfield. They got no respect. Friday night, Russell Malone's basketball squad -- replenished after the football team's heart breaker loss to Lone Oak a week before -- didn't come into the "Dragon's Lair" tugging at their ties, fidgeting, and cracking "I don't get no respect." Instead, they took the court and matched Warren Central's usual intensity with their own brand of in-your-face, don't back down basketball.
East opened with a quick 10-4 lead on Central, and they seemed unfazed by the Dragon's constant full court press, which is a trademark of Coach Tim Riley's lasting success. East's guard #23 Jordan Ellis followed the quick start with a missed dunk, but he got the ball back, stepped out and nailed a three point goal. After a Central miss, he came back down the floor and hit another three point goal. The score was 16-7 in the Raider's favor.
I knew it was going to be a wild ride. I looked for a sign cautioning pregnant women and people with heart conditions not to board.
The Dragon's weren't going to let a cross-county rival come into the Lair and bloody their noses, so Tim Riley cranked the knob of his team's press all the way to 11 and came back after East. Central runs the press so well that I love to watch them. A coach at a major state university within site of Warren Central tries to use a full court press to snare turnovers and only uses it on occasion. Tim Riley, however, uses the press the way it should be used. He uses it constantly, and he intends it to wear teams down instead of popping a turnover every now-and-then. It reminds me of when Denny Crum had his great teams at Louisville, and they ground teams down with constant pressure.
With the press a Tim Riley coached team is never out of the game.
At the end of the first quarter the Raiders led 22-16, but the momentum had shifted back to the home team. Both teams had large crowds in the stands, and they had the gym rocking. The mood in the bleachers matched the mood on the hardwood. Forget Billy Jo Shaver songs, someone needed to que up The Troggs. "Wild thing, you make everything groovy."
I guess the game was too entertaining. Maybe the crowd was too loud. The officials turned the second quarter into a zebra fest. Perhaps they decided they wanted to be part of the show or they got tired of running up and down the court so much. They started whistling every touch, every hand check, and then if two players touched the ball at the same time, they knew there had to be a foul.
It was awful. They turned a wide open basketball game into a free throw shooting contest. The officials blew so many whistles that I thought I was in Havana and Fidel Castro had died.
The Warren East crowd thought they were getting the short end of the stick on the calls, but I must point out that several of their players were on the football field the week before. It's hard to make the transition from the turf to the maple wood in just seven days. I remember one year when traditional football powerhouse Mayfield played their first basketball game. They committed 37 fouls in a 32 minute basketball game. Warren East may have had the same problem in Friday's game.
Central's press and pressure was the other story for the second quarter. They climbed back into the game and had the lead at halftime, 35-34. The highlight of the quarter for the Raiders was DeAngelo Kirk's 23 foot three pointer that kept his team's momentum going.
At the half, I thought that Warren East had made their statement. They are a for real team in the 14th District and in the Fourth Region, but I thought that they could never match Central in the second half. East's hot shooting guard, Ellis, was saddled with four fouls, and a whole raft of them had three fouls after the officials decided to be part of the show.
A point down, Warren East opened the second half with a flurry and took a 45-37 lead on their hosts. Of course, Central came back with two huge plays by freshman George Fant, but everyone started to catch a sniff of upset in the air, including Russell Malone. He was after his players to keep up their intensity, and he even signaled to the throng of Raider supporters in the stands to clap and cheer. He knew his team had a shot at upending the six-in-row Fourth Region champs.
At the end of the third quarter, Central's Stephen Irvin committed a boneheaded move. Right in front of a whistle happy official, who was part of a crew handing out technical fouls like party favors, he slammed the ball down and let it bounce way up in the air. The official proudly signaled "T" and East got to end the quarter with two made free throws, making the score 55-49 in favor of the visitors.
Central wasn't going to go away, however. They never do. They can amp up their press at anytime and turn any team's legs to spaghetti -- over-cooked spaghetti. With 4:33 left in the game, the Dragons had a 59-56 lead over East, and it felt like the momentum had shifted to the home team's bench. East had lost two of its starters to foul trouble, and I no longer sniffed the scent of upset.
I was wrong, though. East wasn't backing down, and they regained the lead on a huge three pointer with 3:45 left.
With time running out and the score knotted at 68-68, freshman George Fant got the ball on the baseline with no one around him. He jumped up and put the ball on the rim, and it rolled off into the hands of a Raider rebounder. The "Wild Thing" game was headed for overtime.
Warren East did it. They took control of the extra period and prevailed 81-75. Throughout the game the Warren Central students chanted "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU" whenever their team got the lead. As the clock ran out on the overtime the East faithful answered with their own "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU."
I'm willing to bet that the Fourth Region heard the Raiders. Is Central's run over or will Tim Riley put together another team that will prevail at Diddle Arena in March? I think the Fourth Region is ripe for the picking this season. Central is not out of it, but there are several other teams who have a shot at punching their ticket to Rupp Arena this season.
OBSERVATIONS
Fant of Heart: Don't bet on it. George Fant is going to be a very good basketball player. It's a given that he is well coached, and he seems to respond to his coaching. He's got good hands and a soft shot. As he matures, he should become more aggressive about taking the ball to the rack. He'll be fun to watch develop this season and the next three.
Hometown Proud?: Throughout the game, Warren Central's PA announcer reported the score of Bowling Green's bid to be 5A football state champs. Fans from both sides of the court cheered loudly at the news of Highland's domination of the Purples. I hear that Bowling Green is going to change their name to the "Bills."
Two Games in Two Nights: I made it to the Bowling Green-UHA game on Thursday and the East-Central game on Friday. That won't happen very often because the Pick and Roll budget is in the tens of dollars and it's rolling stock is a fourteen year old pickup truck.
Throughout the football season the Warren East Raiders assumed the role of Rodney Dangerfield. They got no respect. Friday night, Russell Malone's basketball squad -- replenished after the football team's heart breaker loss to Lone Oak a week before -- didn't come into the "Dragon's Lair" tugging at their ties, fidgeting, and cracking "I don't get no respect." Instead, they took the court and matched Warren Central's usual intensity with their own brand of in-your-face, don't back down basketball.
East opened with a quick 10-4 lead on Central, and they seemed unfazed by the Dragon's constant full court press, which is a trademark of Coach Tim Riley's lasting success. East's guard #23 Jordan Ellis followed the quick start with a missed dunk, but he got the ball back, stepped out and nailed a three point goal. After a Central miss, he came back down the floor and hit another three point goal. The score was 16-7 in the Raider's favor.
I knew it was going to be a wild ride. I looked for a sign cautioning pregnant women and people with heart conditions not to board.
The Dragon's weren't going to let a cross-county rival come into the Lair and bloody their noses, so Tim Riley cranked the knob of his team's press all the way to 11 and came back after East. Central runs the press so well that I love to watch them. A coach at a major state university within site of Warren Central tries to use a full court press to snare turnovers and only uses it on occasion. Tim Riley, however, uses the press the way it should be used. He uses it constantly, and he intends it to wear teams down instead of popping a turnover every now-and-then. It reminds me of when Denny Crum had his great teams at Louisville, and they ground teams down with constant pressure.
With the press a Tim Riley coached team is never out of the game.
At the end of the first quarter the Raiders led 22-16, but the momentum had shifted back to the home team. Both teams had large crowds in the stands, and they had the gym rocking. The mood in the bleachers matched the mood on the hardwood. Forget Billy Jo Shaver songs, someone needed to que up The Troggs. "Wild thing, you make everything groovy."
I guess the game was too entertaining. Maybe the crowd was too loud. The officials turned the second quarter into a zebra fest. Perhaps they decided they wanted to be part of the show or they got tired of running up and down the court so much. They started whistling every touch, every hand check, and then if two players touched the ball at the same time, they knew there had to be a foul.
It was awful. They turned a wide open basketball game into a free throw shooting contest. The officials blew so many whistles that I thought I was in Havana and Fidel Castro had died.
The Warren East crowd thought they were getting the short end of the stick on the calls, but I must point out that several of their players were on the football field the week before. It's hard to make the transition from the turf to the maple wood in just seven days. I remember one year when traditional football powerhouse Mayfield played their first basketball game. They committed 37 fouls in a 32 minute basketball game. Warren East may have had the same problem in Friday's game.
Central's press and pressure was the other story for the second quarter. They climbed back into the game and had the lead at halftime, 35-34. The highlight of the quarter for the Raiders was DeAngelo Kirk's 23 foot three pointer that kept his team's momentum going.
At the half, I thought that Warren East had made their statement. They are a for real team in the 14th District and in the Fourth Region, but I thought that they could never match Central in the second half. East's hot shooting guard, Ellis, was saddled with four fouls, and a whole raft of them had three fouls after the officials decided to be part of the show.
A point down, Warren East opened the second half with a flurry and took a 45-37 lead on their hosts. Of course, Central came back with two huge plays by freshman George Fant, but everyone started to catch a sniff of upset in the air, including Russell Malone. He was after his players to keep up their intensity, and he even signaled to the throng of Raider supporters in the stands to clap and cheer. He knew his team had a shot at upending the six-in-row Fourth Region champs.
At the end of the third quarter, Central's Stephen Irvin committed a boneheaded move. Right in front of a whistle happy official, who was part of a crew handing out technical fouls like party favors, he slammed the ball down and let it bounce way up in the air. The official proudly signaled "T" and East got to end the quarter with two made free throws, making the score 55-49 in favor of the visitors.
Central wasn't going to go away, however. They never do. They can amp up their press at anytime and turn any team's legs to spaghetti -- over-cooked spaghetti. With 4:33 left in the game, the Dragons had a 59-56 lead over East, and it felt like the momentum had shifted to the home team's bench. East had lost two of its starters to foul trouble, and I no longer sniffed the scent of upset.
I was wrong, though. East wasn't backing down, and they regained the lead on a huge three pointer with 3:45 left.
With time running out and the score knotted at 68-68, freshman George Fant got the ball on the baseline with no one around him. He jumped up and put the ball on the rim, and it rolled off into the hands of a Raider rebounder. The "Wild Thing" game was headed for overtime.
Warren East did it. They took control of the extra period and prevailed 81-75. Throughout the game the Warren Central students chanted "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU" whenever their team got the lead. As the clock ran out on the overtime the East faithful answered with their own "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU."
I'm willing to bet that the Fourth Region heard the Raiders. Is Central's run over or will Tim Riley put together another team that will prevail at Diddle Arena in March? I think the Fourth Region is ripe for the picking this season. Central is not out of it, but there are several other teams who have a shot at punching their ticket to Rupp Arena this season.
OBSERVATIONS
Fant of Heart: Don't bet on it. George Fant is going to be a very good basketball player. It's a given that he is well coached, and he seems to respond to his coaching. He's got good hands and a soft shot. As he matures, he should become more aggressive about taking the ball to the rack. He'll be fun to watch develop this season and the next three.
Hometown Proud?: Throughout the game, Warren Central's PA announcer reported the score of Bowling Green's bid to be 5A football state champs. Fans from both sides of the court cheered loudly at the news of Highland's domination of the Purples. I hear that Bowling Green is going to change their name to the "Bills."
Two Games in Two Nights: I made it to the Bowling Green-UHA game on Thursday and the East-Central game on Friday. That won't happen very often because the Pick and Roll budget is in the tens of dollars and it's rolling stock is a fourteen year old pickup truck.
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