Two things happened at Bowling Green High School on Saturday.

First, the Purples found a way to steal a win. Second, Bowling Green found out there’s lot of work to do if it wants to repeat as District 14 champion.

The Purples shot an ice-cold 14-for-52 for the game, but senior Tevin Barksdale’s layup with six seconds remaining proved to be enough for a 38-37 win over visiting Clinton County.

“We’re not happy at all with how we played tonight,” Bowling Green coach D.G. Sherrill said. “The only positive was that we held them to 37 points tonight, but I’m not sure that’s not what they wanted to score anyway.

“So, we really didn’t play well at all, and there’s not any facets of the game that we did well.”

After clinging to a 20-17 lead after halftime, the Purples stumbled out of the blocks in the third quarter. Clinton County ripped off a 15-3 run to claim a 32-24 lead after the period.

The Purples’ defensive pressure turned up a notch in the fourth period, however, as Bowling Green forced eight turnovers in the first four minutes of the frame to eventually tie the game at 34-34.

The teams traded baskets before the Purples got the ball back with under a minute to go and trailing by one. After Bowling Green took its time to find a good shot, junior D.J. Ray drove to the hoop and missed a running layup. But Barksdale collected the rebound and put it in to give the Purples a 38-37 edge.

Clinton County had one last gasp, but Barksdale blocked a jumper from Bulldog senior Steven Conner to close out the victory.

“Our intensity picked up a bit late there, because it wasn’t very good at the beginning,” said Barksdale, who finished with six points and six rebounds. “We got some turnovers and got some easy buckets late, and that’s pretty much it.

“It was horrible. We didn’t come out to play tonight and we’ve got to come back out for the next game with more intensity.”

For the game, Bowling Green forced 30 Clinton County turnovers, but the 27 percent shooting - including just 1-of-17 from beyond the 3-point line - virtually negated the defensive positives.

“We forced a lot of turnovers, but we didn’t capitalize,” Sherrill said. “We took bad shots, we didn’t finish layups and we didn’t do the little things that could help us capitalize on their mistakes.

“We had an opportunity to stretch this game early, but we didn’t, and the longer they stayed in the game the more confidence they got. ... And all of a sudden we got on our heels, we rushed things, made bad decisions and the only thing we really did right was on the last possession where we got a layup to win the game.”

Dillon Flowers finished with 13 points to lead the way for Clinton County (7-6), while Charlie Williams paced the Purples (10-2) with 10 points.

Sherrill said he made it very clear to his team following Saturday night’s contest that things are going to have to change, and change soon, for the Purples.

Bowling Green will host Barren County on Tuesday before opening up district play at Greenwood on Friday.

“We just have a lot of work to do,” Sherrill said. “You can’t continue to just sleep walk through basketball games, you can’t continue to play with no intensity and you can’t continue to not have a good effort.

“We’re not as good a basketball team as our record indicates and we’re only going to be successful when we’re working hard. ... We’re getting ready to get into district play, and there’s not a district around that’s any tougher than ours. And I’m sure there’s a lot of teams with smiles on their faces after this game tonight.”

CCHS 9 8 15 5 — 37

BGHS 10 10 4 14 — 38

CCHS — Flowers 13, Burchett 8, Durham 11, Dyer 2, Conner 3.

BGHS — Richardson 6, Williams 10, Ray 1, Barksdale 6, E. Smith 2, V. Smith 4, Turner 9.