Joe Imel/Daily News Bowling Green’s Andre Graham gets tied up while fighting for a loose ball Thursday against University Heights’ Marcus Reeves (right) and Kevin Watkins at Bowling Green High School.

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It was a rainy Thursday night outside Bowling Green High School before the Purples’ game against University Heights.

Inside the gym, it looked early on like that precipitation may have made its way onto the court and onto the hands of the players.

Turnovers and sloppy play riddled both teams, and the result was limited offense by both squads as visiting University Heights muscled out a 74-59 victory.

“It’s a good thing they had these doors closed,” University Heights coach Randy McCoy said. “Because the ball would’ve been out in the parking lot.”

The lack of production and rhythm was a product of those turnovers, as the Blazers (3-0) took just an 11-9 lead over the Purples (1-1) at the end of the first quarter.

But both teams made up for the offensive drought with pressure defense. That was most effective for University Heights, which slowly pulled away throughout the game.

University Heights held the lead for a majority of the contest, including a 30-22 halftime advantage, but Bowling Green took its only lead at 33-32 with 3:51 left in the third quarter.

It was short-lived, as University Heights followed with a 10-2 run to retake the lead at 44-36. The Blazers never looked back.

Bowling Green coach D.G. Sherrill said his team was out-hustled.

“They beat us on the boards,” he said. “And they just did a better job of finishing the game. If you look at the final score, I don’t think that it was indicative of how the game went. I think maybe it was a six- or eight-point loss. But (University Heights is) a good team, and they’re going to win a bunch of basketball games.”

The Purples made small runs late in the fourth quarter, getting as close as 57-50 with 4:40 left in the period. But six consecutive points by the Blazers pushed the lead to 13 and sealed the win.

Blazers center Scotty Hopson, who has verbally committed to Mississippi State, scored 12 points of his game-high 23 points in the first half.

Jarren Nixon paced the Purples with 17 points.

“I think we executed defensively,” Hopson said. “There are still a few things we have to work on offensively. But all in all we got the win, and that was our main goal and we achieved it.”

The game took some peculiar turns at times.

McCoy was issued a technical foul with 4:19 left in the second quarter. Hopson was also slapped with a technical for arguing with a referee with 7:31 left in the third, and a third technical foul was given to the Blazer bench in the fourth period for a sideline violation.

Through it all, McCoy was happy to leave Bowling Green with a victory.

“This was a good team win for us,” McCoy said. “(Bowling Green) did a pretty good job on Scotty tonight, they did a lot of good things. But we got some teamwork tonight.”