Edmonson County led 1-0 after an early free throw made by Lily Jayne Vincent and never trailed again as the Lady Cats had little trouble defeating Grayson County last night on the road 37-24. A blistering 18-3 start by Edmonson County set the tone for the rest of the contest, led by Paige Wolfe's three, 3-pointers in the first quarter. Wolfe finished with 12 points.

Edmonson County's shooting cooled down in the second quarter and Grayson County began to put some points on the board. The Lady Cougars held Edmonson County to only 5 points in the second but the Lady Cats led 23-12 at the half.

The rivalry game was full of emotion and physical play, including one pile-up as each team fought for possession of a loose ball that resulted in a double technical foul, but Grayson County continued to struggle to score in the final quarter as the Lady Cats went on to win.

It was the first game back at Grayson County for Edmonson's junior point guard Annie Kiper, who transferred this year. She is averaging 7 points, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds per game after 4 games as a Lady Cat.

Eighth grader Cariann Williams had 10 points, 9 rebounds, 6 blocked shots, and 4 assists. Hallie Cassady had 8 points, 9 rebounds, Lily Jayne Vincent had 5 points and 3 rebounds, Kiper had 1 point and 4 rebounds, and Emma White had one point before exiting the game in the first half with a knee injury. It appeared that she hyper-extended her knee during a play but her condition is not currently known.

The boys were scheduled to play immediately after, but the game was postponed due to quick snowfall that made for slick road conditions. The game will be rescheduled for a later date.

The Lady Cats are now 8-13 on the year and are scheduled to play Allen County-Scottsville at home on Monday night, which will be the 2022 basketball homecoming.

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It was not an easy night for the Edmonson County Wildcats as they faced a very talented Central Hardin Bruin team at ECHS tonight.

Central Hardin hit 14 three-pointers tonight while the Wildcats turned the ball over 23 times. While the Cats had four members in double figures, it wasn't enough as the Bruins simply had too much firepower for Edmonson County.

The Wildcats got off to a decent start as they did a good job matching the intensity of the Bruins early, trailing 23-19 after one. The Wildcats tied the score at 26 early in the second but a 10-0 run from the Bruins rattled the Cats into a couple of timeouts. Central Hardin's 1-3-1 defense caused plenty of problems for Edmonson County and the Bruins capitalized on the offensive end. They took a 42-33 lead into the locker room at the break with the help of 8 made three-pointers.

The Bruins continued their run of three-pointers in the second half, adding six more to take a solid 74-52 lead after three. Central Hardin cruised in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats struggled to keep up the pace with the Bruins and the Cats fell 86-62.

Leading the way for the Cats was Braden Wall with 11 points and 5 rebounds, Trace Taylor added 11 points and 4 rebounds, and Evan Stice scored 11 points. Cole Saling had 10 points off the bench, Tyler Anderson had 9 points, Braxton Highbaugh had 5 points and 7 assists, and Zander Bass scored 2 points.

Edmonson County is 10-10 on the season and will take on Grayson County on the road Friday night in a G/B doubleheader starting at 6PM.

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After the first quarter, Lady Cat fans expected a blowout from their team as Edmonson County connected early on three-pointers and took a 21-9 lead; however, that lead wouldn't last long and the game got interesting pretty quickly.

Edmonson County eventually found a way to win after trailing with just over two minutes to go, thanks in part to key rebounds, defense, and much improved free throw shooting in the final seconds. Thanks also in part to junior point guard Annie Kiper, a Grayson County transfer, who in only her second game as a Lady Cat, scored 20 points on 5-8 shooting (62%) from the field, which included 2-3 from the three-point line (67%). She was also a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line, including two with 9.5 seconds left. She has not missed a free throw as a Lady Cat.

Edmonson County had a terrible second quarter as they scored only 4 points and allowed Clinton County to tie the score at 25 at the half.

From there on, it was nip-and-tuck with the Lady Cats leading most of the way, but only by one or two points.

Clinton County took their first lead of the game on a free throw by guard Aysha Sutton with 6:22 to play. The Lady Bulldogs would lead for the next four minutes, but that would be all.

With Edmonson County trailing 41-38, Lady Cat eighth grader Cariann Williams (4pts, 6rbs) grabbed a rebound off a missed free throw from Clinton with 2:23 to go. Kiper hit Hallie Cassady on a backdoor cut and she scored to cut the Lady Bulldog lead to only one with 2:13 to go.

Edmonson County's Kiper picked the pocket of Clinton County's Mackenzie Cope in a full court press. Kiper slipped in the process, kept her dribble while on the ground, recovered and was fouled by Cope on the layup attempt with 2:01 to go. She hit both free throws to give the Lady Cats a 42-41 lead, their first since the end of the third quarter.

The Lady Cats led as much as 6 with just 31 seconds to go; however, the Lady Bulldogs grabbed an offensive rebound on a missed shot and hit a three to cut the lead to 47-44 with only 21 seconds to go. They stole the inbound pass from the Lady Cats on the next play and were fouled with 20 seconds left. Clinton County inbounded and got a cheap foul call against the Lady Cats with 13.9 left. They hit both free throws and cut the Lady Cat lead to 47-46.

Kiper caught the inbound pass and was fouled hard as Clinton County's Cope wrapped her arms around Kiper's body and took her down. No intentional foul was called, despite the argument from the Edmonson County bench. With a swollen elbow from the fall, Kiper iced her two free throws with 9.5 seconds left and the Lady Cats held on to win as Clinton County missed their last shot attempt.

Head Coach Bart Weaver said the halftime discussion revolved around Clinton County's ability to score off put-backs, which allowed them back into the game. Edmonson County narrowly lost the rebounding battle (34-33) but he said lower turnovers (15) and outstanding free throw shooting (81% compared to 48% on Friday) were the differences, mixed in with the strong performance from Kiper.

"She's a leader," he said. "I thought that of her when she wasn't here, she was (playing) somewhere else. I've always admired her for being such a great leader and she's continued that, coming here and she's won everybody over. That's a credit to her, and listen, it's a credit to our kids, to let an outsider come in from across the street."

Lily Jayne Vincent also had a solid performance with 14 points and 10 rebounds. She also hit 4-5 from the free throw line; two down the stretch.

In addition to Kiper, Vincent, and Williams, also scoring for the Lady Cats were Hallie Cassady with 4pts and 6 rebs, Emma White with 3, Jaedlyn Simon with 3, and Paige Wolfe added one.

Edmonson County is now 7-12 on the season and will travel to Logan County tonight for a JV/V game beginning at 6pm. The boys are scheduled to take on Central Hardin tonight at home with a JV/V starting at 5:30.

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Wildcat Head Coach Brad Johnson had some specific things in mind as the team traveled to Butler County last night for a district 12 match up and he knew it would take the Cats doing all those things if the boys were to upset the Bears (11-5). That's exactly what happened and Edmonson County grabbed a district win on the road last night, led by Trace Taylor's 26 points.

Edmonson County shot 62% from the field (29-47), 70% from the free throw line, committed only 9 turnovers, and shot 40% from behind the three point line (6-15). The biggest difference in this game was that the Wildcats executed when they needed to. When they needed a big shot, they made it. When they needed a free throw, they hit it. When it was time for a defensive stop, they got it, and when the buzzer sounded, they were the ones coming out on top.

"We were down a couple guys that I have a lot of confidence in. You know Zander (Bass) and Jarrett (Prunty), they've bought in to what I'm trying to do and nobody's happier than those two tonight, I guarantee you that," Coach Johnson said. "We have talked about it until they're blue in the face and at halftime I said 'ok, here you are, what are you going to do?' In the third quarter, 'here we are again, what are we going to do? Are we going to do something about it?'"

The score was tied at 33 at the half and tied again at 49 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The score was tied once more at 53 with 6 minutes to play. Edmonson County went on a 10-2 run that gave the Cats a 63-55 lead with 2:21 to go. Despite a couple of turnovers and some made baskets by Butler County, some in the final minute, the run would be enough to thwart off the Bears as they never trailed again.

Taylor also added 8 rebounds to his team-high 26 points. Braxton Highbaugh scored 11 points and pulled 7 rebounds. Braden Wall added 9 points and 8 rebounds. Evan Stice added 8 points, Cole Saling added 7, Wil Alexander added 6, and Tyler Anderson scored 4 points. Anderson also took two charges for the team in the 4th quarter that helped keep the momentum on the Wildcats' side.

Edmonson County is now 10-9 on the season and is scheduled to take on Central Hardin at home on Tuesday, January 25th in a JV/V match beginning at 6PM.

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While it goes down in the books as a loss, Coach Bart Weaver said the effort and overall performance of the Edmonson County Lady Cats was at least something that wouldn't keep him awake last night. The Lady Cats led only once during the contest (10-8), but Edmonson County was never really out of the game until the very end. It was also the first game for new point guard Annie Kiper, a transfer from Grayson County.

"I can go home and sleep tonight," he said. "I haven't slept a lot here in the last month. It's the first game with her, (Kiper) and if we make free throws, we were right there for the win."

The record and the stat sheets tell only part of the story. They don't always reflect the entire effort, decision making, team work, and overall feel for a game. Kiper adds some much-needed ball handling for the Lady Cats, who have struggled with turnovers throughout the season. That's largely in part to several players that have had to take on new roles this season.

Edmonson County struggled from the free throw line, hitting only 10-21 (48%) for the game. As coach said, had the girls executed at the free throw line, the outcome could have been different; however, games aren't won and lost by the things that could've been.

"At two different times in the second half we cut it to six," Weaver said. "Maybe five or six, then we come down and we make two or three turnovers in two or three possessions. It's plagued us all year, but the biggest thing tonight was 10 for 21 from the free throw line and it killed us tonight. It kept the differential in scoring because we couldn't hit free throws, but I'm proud of them. It's the first game with Annie being our little floor general. We're only going to get better--this is the first game they've played together."

Edmonson County was led by Cariann Williams with 15 points, 13 rebounds, and 6 blocked shots. Hallie Cassady had 7 points and 3 rebounds, Kiper had 6 points, Lily Vincent added 4 points and 10 rebounds, Paige Wolfe had 4 points, and Emma White added one point.

The Lady Cats are now 6-12 on the season and are scheduled to host Clinton County on Monday at ECHS for a girls JV/V game with JV action starting at 6PM.

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The Wildcats allowed Trinity to erase a good start and early lead last night at ECHS as the Raiders outscored Edmonson County 38-18 in the second and third quarters as the Cats fell 67-55.

The Wildcats led 27-18 with 5:24 left in the second quarter but Trinity went on a 17-4 to end the half that put the Raiders up 35-31 at the break.

It would prove to be enough to keep the Wildcats playing catch up for the rest of the game, but they never caught up. Trinity led as much as 18 in the fourth quarter, despite the hard-nosed effort from the Wildcats.

Coach Brad Johnson discussed the tough zone defense from the Raiders that played a big part in the 24 turnovers from the Wildcats.

"We don't see a lot of zone, so we had two days to prepare, two practices where we played zone the whole blame time," he said. "We had two different ways to line up against it but sometimes the other guy comes in and kicks your tail, and they just kicked our tail. But Coach West (for Trinity) is a classy guy and he called it off there at the end, where an 18-20 point loss turned into a 12 point loss and I appreciate that."

Trinity pushed the ball hard off missed shots from the Wildcats that led to easy buckets in transition.

Edmonson County was led by junior Braden Wall, who had 24 points and 9 rebounds, who came of a 15 point, 10 rebound effort against Hart County in a Wildcat win on Monday.

Trace Taylor added 14 points, Tyler Anderson had 6, Braxton Highbaugh had 4, Boden Bates added 4, and Evan Stice had 3.

The Wildcats are now 8-8 on the season and are scheduled to travel to Owensboro Apollo tonight for a JV/V match with varsity tip expected around 7:30PM.

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The Edmonson County Lady Cats struggled  Friday night against the Trinity Lady Raiders in a 53-25 loss with only seven players as virus quarantines proved to play a big part in the District 12 match.

With 13 players on the roster being out due to COVID protocols, the Lady Cats were extremely short-handed. With one starter and most all bench players out, Edmonson County players didn't have much time for breaks. 

Edmonson County shot as poorly in the first half as they have in years, hitting only 3 of 26 shots for a mere 12% from the field. Things didn't get much better in the second half as the girls were unable to generate any more offense. They shot 17% (8-48) for the game.

Coach Bart Weaver alluded that he disagreed with the quarantine policy when the comment was made after the game that he did about all he could do with the shortened roster and the tough situation.

"I'm going to try to bite my lip a little bit on our quarantine procedures," he said. "I'm gonna have to bite my lip, but yeah, I agree, it's tough. We didn't make shots. You can't win when you shoot 17%. We had a lot of girls out that play a lot of minutes, but we had four starters, so there's no excuse for that."

The Edmonson County school district implemented a board-approved COVID policy that includes quarantines at the beginning of the school year that they said are based on KDE and local health department guidance. Superintendent Brian Alexander said that when it comes to a situation like this, there are no good options.

"No one hates it anymore than I do," he said. "It's hard on our kids, our teams, and our coaches, but we try to look at it from every angle."

Quarantines or not, Coach Weaver had the option of cancelling last night's game; if so, it would have been a COVID forfeiture loss, as per KHSAA regulations. He said he would've played the game and at least tried to win, even if he'd only had five players.

"I'm not taking a forfeit," he said. "It's a district game, you know."

Edmonson County was led in scoring by 8th grader Cariann Williams, who had 7 points and 12 rebounds. Paige Wolfe added 6 points, Hallie Cassady had 4 points and 7 rebounds, Julie Norris added 3 points in her varsity debut, Maham Shahbaz also had 3, and Lily Jayne Vincent added 2.

Edmonson County is now 6-10 on the season. They are scheduled to travel to Green County on Monday for a JV/V game.

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Edmonson County High School has announced Zach Vincent as the new head coach for Wildcat football.

Vincent replaces Ed Smart, who served one year as head coach. The Wildcats had an 0-10 record, with two of those losses coming as a result of COVID cancellations. Edmonson County won their last game on November 20, 2020.

Vincent is a 2009 graduate of ECHS and played 4 years under former head coach Kyle Pierce. He later served as an assistant coach under Pierce for two seasons then served as an assistant at Drakes Creek for 4 years. He has been an assistant with Wildcat Football for the past 3 years and as the head coach at ECMS for the past 2 years.

"I'd like to bring some old things back to Wildcat football that worked in the past," he said. "My first year back to Edmonson County was the 2019 district championship team and you'll see some offense and some plays from then. I want to bring some stuff back from when I played under Kyle Pierce. I think you'll see some hard-edge football. We're going to make it simple. We're going to move it down the field, we're going to eat up clock and we're going to try to win games. If you're going to beat us, you're going to have to out-hit us."

Coach Vincent said he wants to bring a sense of pride back to ECHS football, and after a really tough season last year, he wants to start that immediately.

"We're going to take ownership, take pride in where we're from," he said. "We don't want anyone to try and smother that out just because we're a little county."

ECHS Principal Jonathan Williams said he is excited to welcome Vincent as the head coach.

"Coach Vincent will bring an energetic and positive approach to our program while providing academic and athletic discipline to our student athletes," he said. " Zach was an outstanding player for us and has coached under Kyle Pierce and Nathan Smith here, and alongside several excellent assistants.  Zach will be a role model and mentor to our young men."

He described both Coach Vincent and his wife, Calli, who is a kindergarten teacher at Kyrock Elementary, as "great young people." 

"They both went to school here and both are serving our community as teachers, they are raising their children here and I’m so proud of them both," he added. "I’m looking forward to this season."

ECHS Athletic Director Brad Johnson agreed that Vincent was a great player at ECHS and hopes that Vincent's players will emulate the kind of player he was and the person he is.

“We’re proud that a former Wildcat is going to take the reigns and inject positive enthusiasm into the football program," said Johnson.

Coach Vincent, who also currently serves a science teacher at ECMS, begins his duties immediately. He said while the current roster has many young players, the freshmen and sophomores from last season got a ton of varsity experience.

"We were pretty thin on the roster last year, but there's plenty of potential there," he said. "One real advantage we have is that the guys coming back have really good experience and you don't always see that. We've also got some older kids returning and overall, I'm pretty excited with the crew we got."

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The full court pressure from the Owensboro Catholic Lady Aces was too much for the Lady Cats of Edmonson County to handle last night in the championship game of the All A Classic, hosted in Whitesville as EC fell 62-23. The Lady Aces kept the full court press on through the first 3 quarters, even as their lead reached 30 points. That pressure helped to force a season-high 34 turnovers on the Lady Cats. Coach Bart Weaver said sometimes you just have to forget about certain games and move forward to the next one.

"We've got to forget this game and move on because we've got Cumberland hopefully on Saturday, then we've got Whitesville," he said. "We've got a stretch next week where we've got Friday, Saturday, and Monday, where we have Whitesville (a district game), Monroe, and Green. All three good teams, and you know, we're gonna have to fight tooth-and-nail on those games, so we gotta forget this one."

When the Lady Aces weren't forcing turnovers, their deflections on Lady Cat passes were enough to disrupt their offense. While Edmonson County shot 38% for the game, they only attempted 24 field goals as a team, less than half of what Owensboro attempted. The Lady Aces were 22-49 for 45% shooting.

Catholic also shot lights out from behind the arc, making 11-21 shots for 52%. Edmonson County never made a three-point basket. When the Lady Aces weren't making threes, they were turning Edmonson's turnovers into baskets in transition.

Paige Wolfe led the Lady Cats in scoring with 7, Lily J. Vincent had 6, Cariann Williams added 3, Maham Shabazz added 3, Emma White had 2, and Jenna Cook added 2.

Several Lady Cats were named to various All A honor teams, that included:

• Maham Shabazz, All Academic Team
  
• Paige Wolfe, All Tournament Team
  
• Lily Jayne Vincent, All Tournament Team
  

Edmonson County Cheer Team member Kayden Collins was also honored with the All A 3rd Region Cheerleading award.

Edmonson County falls to 5-9 on the season and is scheduled to play at Cumberland County on Saturday at 6:30PM, weather permitting. The boys team is scheduled to take on Breckinridge County tonight at home; however, ECHS is already trying to reschedule due to the impending winter weather forecast that has already resulted in school being cancelled in EC today. Snow started falling around 9:20AM this morning so it's not likely the game will take place tonight, according to school officials, although no official announcement has been made at the time of this article.

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The Wildcats laid it all out there last night in the All A Classic in Whitesville against a very tough McLean County team, but their effort landed just a bit short as they were defeated by the Cougars 43-33.

The low-scoring contest was a reflection of the Wildcat defense that held McLean County 20-plus points under their average. The Cougars are normally a high-traffic team that pushes their offense up the floor but Edmonson County did their best to take them out of their routine. The Cougars were still able to best the Wildcats despite the adjustment.

The very quick and physical Cougars held the Wildcats to just 5 points in the first quarter and only 12 points for the half as Edmonson County struggled to make shots early. Edmonson County shot 25% for the game on 12 for 47 from the field. McLean shot 45% on 17 of 40. No Wildcat landed in double figures last night; however, they out-rebounded the Cougars 31-22 and held their leading scorer, Brady Dame, a fifth-year senior (15.3ppg) to 9 points.

The Wildcats played pretty evenly against the Cougars after the first quarter; however they weren't able to overcome the early deficit. Coach Brad Johnson said there were several areas where the Cats could've done better but there was certainly no shortage of effort.

"When we got some guys having some off nights, you gotta be a man and go out and play better," he said. "But I asked 'is anybody seeing lack of effort?' and everybody said no, because everybody was playing hard."

He said some nights, you just have to credit the other team.

"It's the best defensive team we've played all year," he said. "We had three good days of preparation, good enthusiasm I thought, and we came over here to win this thing and the attitude was good, but sometimes you just gotta give the other guys credit. They just kinda out played us and man-handled us a little bit."

Trace Taylor led the Cats in scoring with 8pts along with his 5 rebounds. Braden Wall added 7pts and 10 rebounds, Evan Stice had 6pts, Cole Saling added 4pts, Braxton Highbaugh had 3pts and 9rebs, Tyler Anderson added 3pts, and Jarrett Prunty added 2 points.

Edmonson County falls to 7-7 on the season and is currently scheduled to take on Breckinridge at home on Thursday, weather permitting.

The Lady Cats will travel back to Whitesville tonight for the All A Classic Championship game against Owensboro Catholic.

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The Edmonson County Lady Cats defeated the McLean County Lady Cougars 46-43 in the semi-finals of the All A Classic, hosted by Trinity High School in Whitesville on Monday night. The Lady Cats were able to begin play in the semi-finals thanks to a bye in the tournament.

Despite early turnovers and poor free throw shooting, Edmonson County established an early lead which could be credited to buckets scored in the paint on dribble drives. The Lady Cats also crashed the boards early (30 rebounds at the half, 41 for the game) and held McLean County to a miserable 16% first half shooting on 5-32 from the field, which included 3-18 from behind the arc.

After a solid start and a 16-9 first quarter lead, Edmonson County had trouble at times with offense as McLean turned up the defense with full court pressure. The Lady Cats held the Lady Cougars to only 6 points in the second quarter, but only put up 8 points themselves as they held a 34-26 halftime lead.

McLean County, who only averages 3 made three-pointers per game, shot the 3 early and kept on shooting them--29 of them, in fact. While they eventually shot 28% from behind the arc, they missed and missed badly in the first half, several of which were air balls that sailed out of bounds. However, 5 of those came in the second half (two in the final minutes) as the Lady Cougars cut their deficit to only two points on multiple occasions and one point with the game on the line. It was during these times that the memory of some ugly Lady Cat basketball in spots was erased as they hit key free throws that sealed the deal and some tough defense in the final seconds that gave Lady Cat fans a huge scare.

With 2:13 left in the game and the Lady Cats leading 41-33, McLean County's Sarah Miller connected on a three-pointer that cut it to 41-36. The Lady Cats were unable to score on their next possession out of a timeout and McLean's Maria Blades hit another three for the Lady Cougars to cut it to 41-39 lead with 1:32 to go.

Hallie Cassady was fouled as she drove to the right side with 1:19 to go. She hit one of two shots for a 42-39 lead. McLean County's Kashlynn Rice drove the lane and banked in an off-balance shot to cut the lead to 42-41 with 1:01 to go. McLean County called a 30 second timeout and afterwards, Edmonson County's Lily Jayne Vincent was fouled with 46 seconds to go. Going to the line for a 1-and-1, she nailed both free throws (4-4 on the game) to give the Lady Cats a 44-41 lead. Cariann Williams blocked a Lady Cougar shot with 22 seconds left but she was unable to hang onto the ball and the Lady Cougars in-bounded the ball for another possession. McLean was able to draw a foul which put Natalie Patterson at the line. She hit both free throws with 18 seconds left to cut Edmonson's lead to 44-43.

Edmonson County was able to beat the full court press without putting the ball on the floor when senior Paige Wolfe was fouled with 4.2 seconds on the clock. She hit the first foul shot when McLean took a timeout. Wolfe hit her second one which left McLean with their final possession under full court pressure from the Lady Cats. A pass was made to McLean's Sarah Miller, who was met by Lily J Vincent and Emma White near the half court line. She picked up her dribble for a millisecond and put the ball back on the floor as she made a 35-footer with 0.6 seconds left. The shot would have tied the game but the double-dribble call voided the shot. Edmonson County in-bounded the ball as time expired and the game ended.

Wolfe led the Lady Cats with 23 points, Vincent added 8 points and 13 rebounds, Cassady had 8 points and 5 rebounds, Williams added 5 points and 8 rebounds, and Emma White had 2 points and 4 rebounds.

Edmonson County improves to 5-8 on the season and will take on Owensboro Catholic (11-4), who defeated Trinity 64-32 last night in the semi finals, on Wednesday at 6PM.

Edmonson County's boys will take on McLean County tonight at 7PM in Whitesville. The winner will advance to the boys' final, which is scheduled for Thursday night; however, that game could be moved up to Weds after the girls' final, due to potential snow in the forecast for Thursday.