Bears flex against Wildcats—fall to Daviess and BGA
Justin Castlen, player of the game at Edmonson, shown here securing the rebound.
Greg Moore
Banner Sports Editor
The Butler County Bears went on the road to stake claim as the regional title favorites in addition to keeping their win streak alive versus 3rd Region opponents at Daviess County, who they marginally beat in the opening round of last season’s region tournament, a week ago.
The Bears trailed after a back-and-forth first quarter then throughout the remainder despite a valiant effort to come back from a significant disadvantage in the third quarter. Two possessions was as close as they could pull within, eventually falling, 84-77.
Costly turnovers by BC in addition to blistering shooting paved the way for the Panthers, who many would argue, took ownership as the favored to win the region, now. Junior standouts, Jonathan Moss and DeAaron Watkins, enjoyed themselves mammoth games in the win.
Moss, who led all scorers with 35, was a tick better (10/15) from the field than his team’s average of 64%. Watkins shot nearly 90% from the floor and finished with 21 points and ten rebounds to help improve the Panthers to 10-2 overall and 6-0 against 3rd region foes this season.
Butler County almost put five players in double figures. Ty Price was just short of his season average with 26 as the Panthers played physical, but still did not allow him to frequent the free-throw line. Briar Griffin, who fought ridiculously through screens to stay with Moss, scored 15 points and led the Bears with seven rebounds.
Ty Price floats through the air as delivering two of his 38 points against the Wildcats.
Justin Castlen (12 points/five rebounds) and Trever Deweese (ten points/six boards) were the two other Bears reaching double digits. Curtis Murphy’s nine and Case Hooten’s five rounded out the box scoring in Butler County’s first region loss in over a year, dropping their record to 6-8 on the season.
Coach Dockery never let off the throttle against Edmonson County on Friday night. Coaching as if his hair was on fire, he pressed nearly the entire game against the rebuilding Wildcats, who surprisingly were off to a nice, 9-5 record coming in. The Bears were clicking on all cylinders out of the gate and showed no mercy in their 30-point dominance, proving records are so misleading in high school basketball.
Price pushed the tempo on every possession while scoring from everywhere, Griffin carved up the middle in addition to swiping the ball on defense, Castlen stroked shot after shot as cool as the other side of the pillow, and Deweese was a beast in the paint until the zebras said he was too physical forcing him to sit with foul trouble as the mighty Bears could do no wrong. Coach Dockery inserted a little more bench play, also.
Trever Deweese made everything tough for the Wildcats in the paint.
Not much turnaround time found the Bears traveling to Bowling Green to play in the Gary Force Honda Clash at The Swamp at Greenwood High on Saturday. The 4pm tipoff saw many big blue fans in attendance as the Bears matched up with Battle Ground Academy from Franklin, TN.
BGA matched up similarly to the Bears and pushed the ball with the Bears in the opening period. The Bears took an early lead from the start, but it did not last throughout the first as the Wildcats of BGA led by seven to end the first quarter.
Butler County made a run to start the second period. The Bears outscored the Wildcats 16-4 for three-fourths of the second before BGA rattled off the last seven before halftime to cling to a two-point advantage. Between the two teams, more than ten turnovers transpired in the sloppy second; and, BGA emphasized that they did not like the pace as they made adjustments.
While BGA pushed out to a ten-point advantage in the third, Price hit three straight three-pointers with the last one being a four-point play to cut the deficit to a possession with just over a minute left in that period. The Wildcats would hit a jumper to go into the final period up, 55-51.
Regardless of the 39-point effort by Price, the Bears could not battle their way out of the swamp at Greenwood against BGA, who finished them off, 72-60. The Bears, who turned the ball over 20 times in the game, fell to 7-9 on the season.
The Bears travel to face Trinity for a district matchup this Friday night after hosting Muhlenberg County, a team thinking upset on the Bears, on Tuesday this week. The Raiders and Bears will follow the girls’ game that is set to start at 6pm in Whitesville.
BC 30 26 13 25 94
EC 11 20 16 16 63
Price 38, Castlen 21, Griffin 18, Deweese 12
Murphy 3, Hooten 2
BGA 25 9 19 17 72
BC 18 16 17 9 60
Price 39, Griffin 10, Deweese 7, Castlen 2, Vincent 2
