By JON WEBB
GLASGOW — In their Jan. 2 matchup, Glasgow used a 14-0 first quarter run to bury Barren County early and lay the ground work for for a decisive win. Their Feb. 6 matchup was quite similar.
Thanks in part to nine points from Cameron Hall, the Scotties outscored the Trojans 21-4 in the first quarter. Barren scored only six less points than Glasgow over the final three quarters, but was unable to overcome the early deficit.
“Glasgow is just too good to dig a big hole against,” Trojans head coach Warren Cunningham said. “In both games, they knocked us out early.”
Hall and Michael Bradley threw many of the punches on Saturday. Hall led the Scotties with 29 points and shot better than 52 percent, while Bradley turned in his best offensive performance in several games, putting up 12 points and ripping down seven rebounds.
Glasgow head coach Jeff Hall said he encouraged more offensive aggression from Scotties other than Hall, and was glad Bradley answered the call.
“I thought Michael had a good game for us,” coach Hall said. “I told everyone before the game: there’s not a player on the varsity that’s been told not to shot as long as (the shot) is within what they can do. The first thing they should do when they get the ball is look at the basket. They have to be a threat.”
All five Scottie starters were threats in the first quarter, as each added points in the first eight minutes to help build an early Scottie 17-point advantage. The Trojans only baskets in the initial stanza came courtesy of Luke Deckard and Jacoby Poore. Barren had plenty of chances around the basket but was unable to convert, which is a problem Cunningham said has haunted his team all season.
“That’s been an issue for us,” he said. “We missed early opportunities, and that allowed (Glasgow) to get in transition and really stretch out the game.”
The lead didn’t stretch at all in the second, as the Trojans outscored Glasgow 12-10. Hall responded with 11 of his team’s 18 points in the third, but the Scotties were never able to build a lead similar to one constructed in the two team’s Jan. 2 matchup. In the end, however, the first quarter burst was enough, as Glasgow went on to a 68-45 victory.
Hall and Bradley were the only two Scotties in double figures. Kerrington Bradley led the team in rebounds with 12.
Deckard and Ben Hubbard led Barren with 11 points and 10 points, respectively.
The win places the Scotties in a tie with Monroe County atop the district standings. Coach Hall and Falcon head coach Steve Kirkpatrick will meet at Barren River State Park on Wednesday as a part of a District 15 meeting, where they will flip a coin to see which team will serve as the number one seed during the district tournament.
Coach Hall said flipping a coin to decide the seeding after months of hard work may not be fair, but fairness is beside the point.
“That’s just the way it is,” he said. “To be quite honest, if we could have gone to Monroe County (on Feb. 2) and taken care of business, we would have been in control of our destiny.”
Barren’s destiny lies with the whim of the coin as well. As the district four-seed, the Trojans will have to wait to see who they will face in the first round later this month.
“We’ve lost to both teams twice, and they’re both two outstanding teams that go about it in different ways,” Cunningham said. “We’ve struggled at times in the district, and we’ll have to take it as it comes.”
