Bowling Green wins another OT thriller, topples Ashland Blazer in Boys’ Sweet 16
To leave a window open for Bowling Green is to tempt fate this week in Rupp Arena.
The Purples overcame a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to force overtime against Ashland Blazer in the UK HealthCare Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16’s first quarterfinal Friday afternoon. With 1:38 left in the extra period, Braylon Banks scored to give Bowling Green a lead it never relinquished en route to an 80-74 final.
“The game is not over until it’s zero-zero,” said Kadyn Carpenter, who had 17 points for the Purples (30-6). “Once we all locked in and it hit zero-zero, we got a great outcome.”
Before its final flurry, Bowling Green led for just 20 seconds in the first quarter, also on a Banks bucket. Ashland senior Tyson LaLonde answered that basket with a 3-pointer that gave his Tomcats the lead until early in the fourth quarter.
After trailing by double digits in the first half, Bowling Green opened the final quarter on a 5-0 run, capped by a corner triple by Luke Idlett, to tie the game at 57. Idlett scored 11 of his 26 in the fourth, including a steal-and-layup with 46 seconds left to knot things again after the teams exchanged 6-0 spurts.
Ashland retook the lead 67-65 on a pair of free throws by Zander Carter with 26.4 seconds left in regulation, but Deuce Bailey on a slip to the basket turned a quick pitch into a layup. A 3-point try from the corner by Ashland’s Elijah Neel missed off the iron.
Neel hit a free throw with 1:53 to play to put Ashland up 68-67 in the overtime period, but it was the Tomcats’ final lead. Bowling Green scored the next nine points to take control and win a second straight overtime game.
“We don’t run across a lot of teams that can play as fast as we want to play, but they played as fast as we want to play,” Bowling Green head coach D.J. Sherrill said. “It was just about game-winning plays in that fourth quarter and then in the overtime, getting stops and rebounds and doing all the little things that determine the game.”
Bailey, who scored 15 of his 18 in the second half, hit a game-winning shot with 9 seconds to play in overtime against Adair County in Wednesday’s first round. The Purples led most of that game but trailed 51-50 prior to Bailey’s heroics.
Ashland’s hot shooting made for a much different script through most of Friday’s bout. The Tomcats (24-8) made half of their 3-point attempts, 7-for-14, in the first half and maintained that pace through three quarters (10 of 20). They missed their last seven bids from beyond the arc.
“We told our guys at halftime, three minutes or four minutes into the third quarter, we want their legs to be jelly,” Sherrill said. “ … They missed a couple shots that in the first or second quarter wouldn’t have touched the rim.”
Carter, a 6-foot-6 guard who’s signed with Liberty University, scored 26 of his game-high 33 points in the second half. LaLonde started on fire, scoring all 14 of his points in the first quarter to help Ashland build a 21-13 lead. After making all five of his shot attempts in the opening frame, LaLonde was held to two shot attempts for the remainder, both misses.
Ashland won the 16th Region for a seventh straight season but last made it to the state semifinals in 2021. In that span, the eventual state champ ended Ashland’s season four times: Trinity in 2019, Highlands in 2021, Warren Central in 2023 and Lyon County in 2024. The COVID-19 pandemic ended everyone’s run in 2020 and state runner-up Covington Catholic got the Tomcats in 2022.
The Tomcats last reached the championship game in 1996, falling to Paintsville. They won the last of their four state titles in 1961.
“We want Saturday morning and we’re gonna fight like crazy to get there,” Ashland head coach Ryan Bonner said. “I love what we have coming back but I’m also very sad with what’s leaving, obviously. But the mission’s not gonna change and the vision’s not gonna change.”
Bowling Green will face South Oldham in Saturday’s first semifinal in Rupp Arena. The Dragons knocked off Jeffersontown 76-75 on Friday afternoon.