(Butler, PA) A freshman who in March helped to lead the Butler County Community College men’s basketball team to its only berth in a national championship tournament in 55 years has been named a National Junior College Athletic Association All-American.
Kevaughn Price is the third BC3 student-athlete to be recognized with the prestigious postseason award since December.
Price averaged 21.5 points for a Pioneers squad that finished 21-5 and was ranked as high as No. 7 among 97 NJCAA Division III programs.
He scored 21 points in BC3’s 83-76 victory against sixth-ranked Fulton-Montgomery, Johnstown, N.Y., in a March 16 consolation game of the NJCAA Division III national championship tournament in Herkimer, N.Y.
“The team put in a lot of work this whole year, and we got to a good spot,” Price said. “All the hard work started to pay off. This is a blessing.”
Price and BC3 volleyball players Morgan Jack and Aslyn Pry have been selected to receive All-American awards in the past four months.
“Being an All-American is an amazing honor. It shows how good you are and how respected you are.”
“One of the crowning achievements for an individual."
Price’s scoring average was eighth among all Division III players; his 226 successful field goals were fifth and his 558 points 12th. Price scored 20 or more points in 14 games and led BC3 nine times.
He had a team second-best 34 blocked shots.
Price’s All-American award shows “the country noticed,” said first-year BC3 coach Joe Lewandowski, himself a BC3 All-American in men’s basketball in 1995. “They noticed you and they said, ‘Wow. You were outstanding.’ He’ll have that with him forever.”
“Being an All-American is an amazing honor,” BC3 guard Anthony Watson said. “It shows how good you are and how respected you are.”
“One of the crowning achievements for an individual,” BC3 guard-forward Todd Simons said.
“I am definitely a student first”
Price, Jack and Pry also attained high honors on the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference fall 2022 sports all-academic team, a recognition for student-athletes who complete at least 12 credit hours and achieve a grade-point average between 3.5 and 4.0.
“I am definitely a student first,” Price said. “My grades have always been important to me. I feel like I was a great student in high school, and I am keeping that up here.”
Price was a player on a Bishop Canevin squad that in March 2022 won its first Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A championship in Hershey. He later received first-team all-state honors by sports reporters voting statewide.
“Kevaughn has it figured out,” Lewandowski said. “He really does. He is chasing everything. In the classroom he is competing. On the court he is competing. He is going to be ultra-successful in life. To be named an All-American, that’s really special. … He earned it. All the times he came to the gym early. All the times he stayed late. Those are all the extra sacrifices he made to get there.”
BC3’s men’s basketball team in February won its seventh WPCC championship since 1980 and its first NJCAA Division III Region 20 title since 2002.
The Pioneers were 2-16 a year ago and their 21-5 record in 2022-2023 was the program’s best since at least 2010-2011.
Price was the Region 20 player of the month for January. He was selected to the WPCC all-conference and all-Region 20 tournament teams, and to the all-Region 20 first team.
Also selected to the all-Region 20 men’s first team was BC3 guard Derrick Anderson, and to its second team, Pioneers forward Jason Baker.
Named to the all-Region 20 women’s first team were BC3 forward Pry and guard Emma Johns, and to its honorable mention squad, guard Emma Monteleone.
BC3’s women’s team finished 19-6, won the program’s sixth WPCC championship in eight years and ended with the program’s best record since at least 2009 under first-year coach Lydia Roth.
Anderson was third in Division III with a scoring average of 22.4 points and Baker was first with 130 blocks.
Pry was first in Division III with 410 rebounds and fifth in points with 518. Johns was sixth with 74 successful 3-point shots and Monteleone 10th with 118 assists.
Anderson is a graduate of Boardman, Ohio, High; Baker, of Legacy Early College, Greenville, S.C.; Pry, of Moniteau; Johns, of Karns City; and Monteleone, of Butler.
BC3 athletics programs since 2015 have won 25 conference and 13 regional championships, earned berths five times in national championship tournaments and produced 15 All-Americans.
