Story by Wyatt Ebersole
The Butler Men suffered a big loss Saturday afternoon at the hands of Garden City that will have a major effect on the upcoming Region VI Playoffs. The loss for the Grizzlies now puts them at fifth place in the conference and Garden jumps to fourth, meaning Garden City would get a first round bye in the upcoming Region VI Playoffs and Butler would not. The loss for the Grizzlies is their third in their last five games and is their third straight road loss. The defeat drops the Grizzlies to 21-8 overall and 15-8 in conference play. Meanwhile, the win for Garden boosts them to 21-7 overall and 16-7 in conference play.
The Men started out solid, getting stops early and taking a 5-2 lead with 17:20 left in the first half after a Rob Brown three, but Garden City had an answer. The Busters forced a five-minute Butler scoring drought that saw Garden go on a 16-0 run to take an early 18-5 lead. Tahjae Hill broke the drought with two free throws followed by another Rob Brown three to make 20-10 Busters with 11 minutes left in the half. Back-to-back and-1's for Hill and Brown pulled the Grizzlies back within eight at 26-18 8:18 to play in the half. The teams traded points over the next few minutes, but a Tahjae Hill three with 5:20 left had the grizzlies down by just six at 27-33 heading into the under-5 media timeout. Out of the timeout, a free throw pair from the 7'0 Christian Richardson and a steal layup combo from Javon Grant pulled the Grizzlies within just two points just like that. The Grizzlies were never able to regain the lead in the half but managed to keep pace with Garden City the rest of the way and trailed by just four at the halftime break.
The Grizzlies again came out cold to start the half, allowing a quick 7-0 Garden City run that put them up 50-39 early in the half. The Grizzlies weren't going anywhere though as they went on a 15-3 run of their own that put the Grizzlies up by two with 12:04 left to play. The Grizzlies led for most of the next seven minutes, but never got their lead any bigger than four. Garden City would take the lead back for good with 5:49 left to go after a jumper put them up 65-64. The Busters managed to stretch their lead out to as big as seven at 72-65 with just over three minutes left to play. The Butler Men continued to battle and got back within two at 74-72 with 1:29 left after a huge three by Rob Brown. On the next possession by Garden City, the Grizzlies nearly got the stop they needed to go down and tie the game up. Isaiah Williams managed to steal the ball away on the inbounds pass, but his pass up the floor could not be controlled, and the Busters got the ball back. The Busters made the Grizzlies pay for the mistake as Garden would hit a deep three pointer from the top of the key late in the shot clock that was the dagger to the Grizzlies heart as they would ultimately fall 77-78 to Garden City. Interestingly, the Grizzlies did have a crazy chance to tie the game late. Rob Brown made a deep desperation three with 2.5 seconds left to make it 75-78 and then Garden City carelessly threw the inbounds pass right to Javon Grant, but the Grizzlies chose to take the two instead of the three and lost the game by one.
With the loss, the Grizzlies will now need some outside help and a win over Independence in the season finale to obtain a first-round bye in the upcoming Region VI Playoffs.
The Grizzlies host Indy on Wednesday at 7:30.
