Will Adler poured in a career-high 30 points and the Butler men stayed red hot since the start of January with a 108-79 win over Neosho County on Wednesday at the Power Plant.
Neosho, the defending Region VI champions, scored first on a bucket by Marc Moon, but from there, Butler was in control.
LaJuan Hardy made a pair of 3-pointers and Will Adler made his first of many as Butler roared out to a 9-2 lead. Neosho would never get closer than four points the rest of the game.
Butler put the game out of reach with a 17-2 run midway through the first half, pushing the advantage to 36-14 after another Adler 3-pointer with 8:54 left in the period.
Leading 56-35 at half, Butler opened the second half with a 16-2 run behind four treys from Adler in the first three minutes of the half. The run pushed the Grizzlies' lead to 70-37.
Butler hit the century mark when Johnnathan Lindsey scored on an offensive rebound to make it a 101-63 game with 3:40 to go.
Adler's 30 points surpass his previous career-best of 26 scored earlier this season against Seward County. He also had nine rebounds, just missing a double-double. Adler is the third Grizzly to score 30 points in a game this season, joining LaJuan Hardy and Jacolby Harris.
Hardy added 26 points for Butler, hitting 8 of 9 from beyond the arc. Ken Perkins had 15 points off the bench and also had 12 rebounds for a double-double. Jacolby Harris had 11 points – his fifth straight game in double figures.
Butler shot 50 percent from the floor (33 of 66) and from 3-point range (18 of 36) and outrebounded Neosho 46-36. Neosho shot just 39 percent (29 of 75) overall.
This is the fourth time for the Grizzlies to score 100 or more points in a game this season, with three of those games coming in conference play (Seward, Pratt and Neosho).
Butler (10-5 overall, 7-5 conference) has now won three straight games and will next play Saturday at Colby in a 6:00 p.m. contest.
