Beech Tree News Network

 Butler County Middle School boys basketball was back in action on Tuesday night after some time off for Thanksgiving Break.  They faced a familiar foe in the Suns of Muhlenberg South.  These two teams squared off right before Thanksgiving Break with BCMS 8th grade team winning quite easily.  This game, however, would be tougher with the loss of starter Kyle Casey who is out due to injury.  The Suns did make it a much closer game in the first half, but the Bears were just too hard to handle and won easily once again with a score of 54 to 41.  The difference maker in this game very well may have been Kaleb Casey who had a season high score of 22 points and numerous rebounds.  He was not alone in the scoring department though.  Two other Bears made it into double digits as well.  Bailey Anderson had 16 points, and Blake Graham had 13.  Also scoring for the Bears was Ty Burden 2 and Chandler Franzell 1.

                The 7th grade team came out with a little fire themselves and played very competitively for the first three quarters of the game with the South Suns keeping it to within 5, but the Suns pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat the Bears 43 to 23.  The 7th grade team did show some promise for the future in this one.  Gage Ward, Caleb Beasley and Brennan Grubb each scored 6 points.  Skyler Moore and Patton Allen had 2 each and Wyatt Dean had 1.

                Later in the week, the Bears traveled to Ohio County to face the Eagles.  The Bears, without starter Kyle Casey who may be out some time, were all business.  They charged out to an early lead and built on it throughout the game.  Blake Graham was a scoring machine with the help of several assists from Bailey Anderson.  Graham was able to score 23 points on the night.  Anderson contributed 12, Kyle Casey 11, Jacob McBride 3, Skyler Moore 3, Kaleb Hunt 2, Brennan Grubb 2, and Ty Burden 1.  The final score was 57-43.

                It was quite a different story for the Bears 7th grade team who was missing starter, Gage Ward due to illness.  The turnover difficulties the Bears were plagued with earlier in the season returned in the first half allowing for few scoring opportunities.  The Bears 7th grade team dropped this one with a score of 55 to 26.  Wyatt Dean came off the bench and did well for the Bears scoring  7 points.  Caleb Beasley also scored 7.  Brennan Grubb and Patton Allen each had 4 with Skyler Moore and Neil Bewley having 2 each.

Story by Kim Grubb, Beech Tree News/WLBQ1570