Butler County races past Edmonson County

Published 11:06 pm Thursday, February 13, 2025

By Micheal Compton

MORGANTOWN — The Butler County boys’ basketball team had a successful postseason tuneup, racing past District 12 rival Edmonson County 88-68 on Thursday at Butler County High School.

Locked into the two seed in the district tournament later this month at Whitesville Trinity, Butler County (15-12 overall, 5-1 District 12) dominated the first half and cruised from there facing the team the Bears will see in that district tourney opener.

Butler County, which has won four straight games, finished tied in the standings with Grayson County — splitting the season series — but are the two seed based on the Cougars having the higher current RPI.

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“That’s the team we are going to play,” Butler County coach Calvin Dockery said. “They are going to come hard. We know that. They are going to give us every ounce of effort that they have, but I think our guys are hungry right now. We are starting to really hit our stride I believe, (but there are) a few things we need to clean up to make us even better.”

Butler County pressed the pace from the start, using a 14-0 first-quarter run to build a 19-4 advantage. The Bears continued to light up the scoreboard, shooting 53% in the first half. The lead increased to 38-13 after two Ty Price free throws and was 50-25 by the break.

“There is obviously a style that we want to play,” Dockery said. “If we can get teams to play that style, we feel pretty confident. That’s one thing we teach all the time, they are gonna score but when they score we are going to attack. That’s the mentality we have. Obviously we have to be a little better on defense than we were tonight, but that is the mentality to get the game going up and down the floor as much as possible.”

A jumper from Briar Griffin gave Butler County its largest lead of the night at 60-29 with 5:25 remaining in the third. Edmonson County (13-9, 2-4) was able to start chipping away from there.

A 13-2 run quickly cut the deficit to 20, with Blayne Deweese’s bucket in the final second making the score 67-51 heading into the fourth.

Edmonson County’s comeback stalled from there, with the Wildcats unable to get closer than 15 in the final quarter.

“It’s really nice to come out here and know we can beat them like that, but also we are not content with that win,” Butler County senior Justin Castlen said. “We know we did some things that we shouldn’t have. After halftime I think we just settled down and were content. We weren’t really hungry like we were in the first half. I think coming into the district (tournament) we will be ready.”

Price led the way with 31 points, breaking the all-time career scoring record in Region 3. Price has 3,161 points, surpassing Corky Withrow who scored 3,136 from 1952-56.

Castlen added 20 points for the Bears. Trever Deweese finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Griffin added 14 points.

“At the end of the day, a win is a win,” Price said. “Obviously we have kind of started stacking some wins here at the end of the season, so that is big for us. We are kind of hitting our stride at the end of the year. We kind of did the same thing last year. Just catching this rhythm now is good. We are confident going into tournament time.”

Tyler Wilson led Edmonson County with 18 points, one of four Wildcats in double figures. Blayne Deweese scored 16 points before fouling out late, Braden Wright added 12 points and Braxtin Lindsey finished with 10 points.

ECHS 8 17 26 17 — 68

BCHS 22 28 17 21 — 88

EC — Wilson 18, Deweese 16, Wright 12, Lindsey 10, Ruth 6, Sanders 4, Swihart 2.

BC — Price 31, Castlen 20, Deweese 16, Griffin 14, Hooten 4, Murphy 3.

About Micheal Compton

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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