West Pulls Away From Burgin in District Opener

Jared Holt

Herald Staff

sports@harrodsburgherald.com

After losing to the West Jessamine Colts in both regular season games by a combined 82 points, the Burgin Bulldogs were the underdog heading into the team’s third meeting Monday night in the opening round of the 46th District Tournament.

“We could have come in here and hung our heads and not even shown up to play,” said Burgin Head Coach Brian Kirk. 

Burgin not only showed up to play, but to compete. After falling behind 19-10 with under a minute to play in the first quarter, the Bulldogs scored back-to-back baskets in the final 30 seconds of the period cutting the Colt’s lead to five, 19-14.

West Jessamine picked up their defense in the second quarter forcing Burgin to turn the ball over on six of their first seven possessions, leading to a 27-16 Colt’s lead with over four minutes left in the half. Just when it looked like West was going to run away with the game, Burgin elevated their game outscoring West in the remainder of the half, 14 to 3, tying the game by halftime, 30-all.

“I tell you, my boys came in here with some heart and knew they were going to compete for 32 minutes,” said Kirk on his team’s first half performance. “I was very proud that after we got down 11 points in the second quarter that we responded the way we did.”