Bears tame Maroons and Wildcats—bow to #10 Butler

 

By Greg Moore

Banner Sports Editor

 

The Butler County Bears adventured over to face one of the top teams in the 2^nd Region, the Madisonville-North Hopkins Maroons, last Monday night before hosting Edmonson County on Thursday and Louisville Butler on Saturday evening in what was supposed to be finale of a three-game, packed lineup in Morgantown for the Hebrews Classic.

Over in Madisonville, the Maroons, a very athletic group, ran with the Bears throughout the first; however, the pace wound up spiraling out of control for them in the second. After grasping a 17-11 first quarter advantage, Butler County turned it up to full throttle in the second period.

 

 

Ty Price, who led the Bears with 26 points while remarkably not one coming from the free-throw line, drove baseline to find an open Curtis Murphy in the corner with just over two minutes before the half. Murphy’s three was nothing but net and the six-point margin had magnified by four out to 24 points, 41-17, just like that. That six-minute run proved pivotal.

Madisonville-NH kept firing three balls contributing as another huge difference-maker in the contest. Whereas the Bears went 10/30 from beyond the arc, the Maroons only delivered on four of 22 attempts. The Maroons chipped away in the third as a couple of those fell; and they executed at the rim despite an excellent defensive front by the Bears. Nonetheless, BC kept forcing turnovers while churning out points, staying up, 67-51, going into the final quarter of play.

The hosts did pull within ten with just over three minutes left to play, but the mighty Bears flexed their dominance down the stretch. Trever Deweese, who has been intense in the paint for Coach Dockery, found Murphy for two more of his 11 points; then, Price nailed one of his six three-pointers to get comfortable again, leading 80-65.

 

 

Cruising back to Morgantown with an 85-69 win had to be refreshing for the Bears. They played exceptional defense and got a balanced attack. Deweese tallied a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Justin Castlen netted 17 while Briar Griffin had a tremendous stat line. Griffin poured in 14 points, pulled down ten rebounds, and passed out ten assists in the performance.

Back in the Bear Cave on Thursday, the Bears scored 22 and 28 in the first and second quarters against the Edmonson County Wildcats. Regardless of the 50-25 disadvantage at the half, the Wildcats still battled with the Bears in the final district regular season game, outscoring the Bears in the second half.

Deweese racked up another double-double (16/13) and Price led all scorers with 31 points. Castlen just missed his double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds. Of course, Castlen’s defense was on point, and he splashed four of his seven three-point attempts, which helps propel his percentage to nearly 40% from beyond the arc on the season.

 

 

Griffin, the fourth in double figures for the Bears, added 14 points and a half-dozen rebounds. Case Hooten strolled away with four in the scoring column while fighting for five boards in the district matchup with the Wildcats, which appears to be a likely first-round #2/#3 contest of the district tournament along with Grayson County, the top-seed, playing #4 Trinity.

On Saturday, the annual Hebrews Classic was set to take place at BCHS; unfortunately, with all the rain and statewide emergency alert, two teams were not able to travel, and two of the three games scheduled were cancelled. Despite efforts to find opponents to participate in at least one other game, 14 at the time, Louisville Butler marched into the Bear Cave for the only game.

 

 

Butler County competed with another top team in the state extremely well. The Bears of Butler (21-3 overall and 12-0 in the 6^th Region) rotated fresh players all throughout. They played with much physicality and had some of the quickest hands the Bears had played all season.

The battle was back-forth for much of the contest before the visitors gained a slight edge. Butler pushed their lead out to 14 through the first half of the final period, but the Bears fought back to make it interesting down the stretch, getting within a couple possessions before bowing to the Bears of Louisville Butler, 82-75.

Only four Bears got into the scoring column for Butler County. Price scored 32 and Castlen had another explosive offensive game, hitting several three-pointers on his way to 26 points. Deweese contributed with ten and Griffin delivered seven.