IOLA, Kan - The Butler men won its third straight conference win on the road by beating Allen County 89-74 on Wednesday.
Butler (16-12 overall, 8-9 conference) had six players finish in double figures, with sophomore Derrick Byrd scoring 17 points to lead the Grizzlies.
Semaj Hervey added 14 points, while Will Adler finished with 13 in the win. Other Grizzlies to reach double digits were Caelan Neal (11), Damien Akao (10) and DeQuan Love (10).
Butler quickly rebounded from an early deficit, as Allen opened with an 8-0 run just 3:30 into the game. Damien Akao's three-pointer from the far corner tied the contest at 15-15 at the 11:32 mark, then Will Adler and Alec Hildreth followed with baskets to give Butler its first lead of the game.
Akao added another trey at the 6:43 mark to put Butler up 26-19. The Grizzlies went into halftime with a 42-30 lead, ending the half on an 8-2 run.
Butler extended its lead to 16 in the second half when Derrick Byrd hit two foul shots with 14:12 to play. The Red Devils closed the margin to seven on two separate occassions, the latter coming with 4:33 remaining when DeRon Mims scored a layup off a steal.
A 10-2 Butler run pushed the lead back to 15, as Adler and Hervey hit three-pointers to give the Grizzlies a 82-67 lead with 2:22 left. Butler closed out the game by hitting 7-of-8 foul shots, with Hervey making 5-of-6.
The Grizzlies finished shooting strong in the second half, hitting 58 percent (15-of-26) from the field and hit 88 percent from the foul ine (14-of-16). Overall, Butler made 49 percent (31-of-63) from the field, while Allen connected on 42 percent (24-of-57). The Red Devils hit just 1-of-18 three-pointers.
Allen (14-14, 5-12) was led in scoring by Jameel Henson's 18 points.
The road win was key for Butler, who remains still alive for a first-round playoff game. The Grizzlies are locked into a three-way tie with Seward County and Garden City for seventh place in the conference, as the top eight teams will host an opening-round game.
Butler will finish out the road portion of the conference schedule Saturday with a 4 p.m. contest at Pratt, then return home for the regular season finale against Cowley on Monday at 5:30 p.m.