Wildcats Fall to Butler In District Finals, Now Look Ahead To Region 3 Tournament

Edmonson County senior Layne Ashley puts up a shot against Butler County defenders in the District 12 Championship in Grayson County, March 1, 2024.

Joseph Barkoff, story and photos:
Just because they call it a game, does not make it easy by any stretch of the imagination.

The Edmonson County Wildcats knew what they were up against in the District 12 finals last night against one of the top teams in the region. The tournament was hosted at Grayson County High School.

Three nights ago, it all came together when the Wildcats defeated the Grayson County Cougars to advance to the Championship.

Friday was different. 

Edmonson County was still the underdog, that hadn’t changed, and facing a team who had beaten them twice already in regular season play wasn’t any different either.

The stands were even more packed than the previous games, with Butler County fans outnumbering Edmonson County at a glance. Both sides cheered their hearts, and in some cases, voices out during the contest.

What else was different was the Wildcats were facing the second-ranked team in KHSAA Region 3 in a 20-8 overall, 12-0 in Region, and 8-0 District record Butler County Bears.

“We went from playing our best game of the year to playing our worst game,” Wildcats head coach Trey Tinsley said after the game on the Edmonson Voice Wildcats Live Post Game Show. “But this is the good news, I’m just a positive thinker, we got next week Regional Tournament and we got a chance to do something, you know we haven’t done since 1993 I think.”

Three nights ago on Tuesday, they kept level heads and didn’t try to force passes, remembering they had a game plan to stick to.

“I don’t know if it was nerves,” Tinsley said. “We just didn’t play well tonight.”

Friday, Edmonson turned over the ball 19 times versus Butler’s 5.

They also only shot 34 percent to Butler's 50 percent on shooting from the field. Both teams did not shoot free throws well with Edmonson leading in the stat with 6-14 for 43 percent versus Butler's 2-6 for 33 percent.
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There were positives on the night though, despite the final score of 79-40 in favor of the Bears over the Wildcats

Edmonson County Wildcat junior power forward Joshua Decker (left) looks to shoot over Butler County in the KHSAA District 12 Championship game hosted at Grayson County Friday March 1 in Leitchfield.

Edmonson County Wildcat sophomore shooting guard Tyler Wilson (1) moves the ball up court against Butler County in the KHSAA District 12 Championship game hosted at Grayson County Friday March 1 in Leitchfield.

Edmonson County outscored Butler County 15-13 in the second quarter, but the damage had been done and the score at half time was 38-22 in favor of Butler County.

“I think that we were ready to come out and play, we just got off to a slow start,” junior power forward Joshua Decker said after the game. “But they’re a really good team.”

There other positives are in the future too. Next week in the future.

“The good thing is, we have Regionals next week,” Tinsley said. “So, we got another chance to play.”

As well a chance to accomplish something not seen in Edmonson County in over 30 years with a win in the Regional Tournament.

“District finals are great, we want to win the game next week,” Tinsley said.

They have to forget about the game and he hopes to get a good draw for the tournament next week, he said.

“We got to forget about it, and just go to the Regional Tournament, let’s see if we get a good draw and let’s go win a game,” Tinsley said. 
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The draw for teams was held Saturday morning and put the Wildcats against Owensboro Catholic next week.

Edmonson County Wildcat junior shooting guard Kollin Doyle (left) moves the ball up court against Butler County in the KHSAA District 12 Championship game hosted at Grayson County Friday March 1 in Leitchfield.

Edmonson County still has some fight left in them and the team knows it can learn from its mistakes.
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“Every game is a learning opportunity,” junior power forward Wyatt Gravil said after the game. “We learn a little from each game. Today we learned that through the Tournament we can compete with anybody on any day, they just came out and they played well. They sped us up a little bit.”

They just have to keep it together and go to Regions, he said.

“We’re gonna get us a win at Regions,” Gravil said. “We’re gonna fight hard. We know we can do that.”

They can fight indeed.

Despite the rivalries and hard-fought games, the harsh rhetoric often only emits from the stands, and in contrast the players play hard and intentional, but not malicious, and even exchange hugs with off-season neighbors after games.

Gravil said he loved both being the underdog and beating rival Grayson.

They will get another chance to be the underdog again.

Decker said he loved the atmosphere surrounding the games during the tournament, “Especially District,” Decker said. “Rivalries, I love it.”

“Anything can happen,” many people have said in specific relation to Edmonson County’s chances next week in the Regional Tournament and in general relation to basketball played specifically in March. 

Madness, they call it. March madness.

And Edmonson County is headed to the KHSAA Regional Tournament to play Owensboro Catholic on Wednesday, March 6th at 7:45PM at the Owensboro Sports Center in Owensboro.

The Edmonson Voice will have the live video stream available that night.