Butler Wins Thriller Over No. 5 Cowley to Cap Regular Season

Grizzlies Claim Win No. 20 Over 5th Ranked Tigers in Regular Season Finale

Butler Wins Thriller Over No. 5 Cowley to Cap Regular Season
March 5, 2025

EL DORADO, Kan. – An Emeka Opurum layup plus the foul with 3 seconds remaining in regulation sent the Butler Grizzlies men's basketball team to a 72-69 win over the No. 5 nationally ranked Cowley Tigers on Wednesday evening in the Power Plant.

The Grizzlies (20-10, 15-9 KJCCC) earned their 20th win of the season in the final regular season game taking down the fifth ranked and KJCCC Champion Tigers (26-4, 21-3), snapping their eight game win streak. Butler earned its fourth win over a ranked team this season finishing 4-4 vs. the top-25.

Taking over possession with 24.5 seconds remaining and the score tied 66-66, Grizzly guard Russell Branch dribbled around the perimeter as Butler set out to take a shot late in the clock. Branch made his move with four seconds left finding Opurum in the middle of the lane who drop stepped and put a layup up that rimmed in as he was fouled. He converted the free throw and Cowley's last-ditch effort from Marcus Whitlock missed short as the buzzer sounded and Grizzly fans and student-athletes celebrated.

Opurum turned in a monster effort, registering a game-high 18 points and 19 rebounds to go with two blocks. The Grizzlies outrebounded Cowley 48-37 and outscored them in the paint, 40-24.

The game saw seven ties and seven lead changes. The first half got off to a back-and-forth start being tied 14-14 seven minutes in. Cowley stretched its lead to 22-15 on an 8-1 run before the Grizzlies saw two Josiah Kirkwood free throws, a Bubba Leavell three and an Opurum dunk all go in to knot things back up at 22-22 with 8:27 in the half. Butler outscored the Tigers 17-7 over the final 8:27 of the half to take a 39-29 lead to halftime. The Grizzlies got crucial tip-ins from Seven Bahati and Rashad McCormick in the final minute of the first half to help maintain the lead. Leavell had a game-high 11 points in the first half shooting 3-3 from distance while Opurum had eight points and eight rebounds in the half.

Butler carried the momentum into the second half taking its biggest lead, 18, at the 15:13 mark as Devin Kerr's layup made it 49-31. They opened the half on a 10-2 run with Kerr scoring five of the 10. Cowley did not cut the Butler lead to single digits until there was 10:20 remaining in the game making it 54-45.

An Opurum layup put Butler ahead 60-53 entering the under-eight media timeout but Cowley came out of the timeout hot, scoring the next seven points to tie the game 60-60, the first time Butler did not lead since 4:50 in the first half. The Grizzlies ripped off five points straight to pull back ahead 65-60 and later another Opurum layup made it 69-62 with 2:18 to play. Branch had two impressive layups in the final five minutes to keep the Grizzlies ahead for the time being. Whitlock then made a layup and Marcus Zeigler put in a layup and a three on back-to-back possessions for a 7-0 Cowley run to make it 69-69 before the Opurum dagger.

The Grizzlies shot 37.5% (24-64) from the field to Cowley's 38.3% (23-60). The Tigers were 9-21 (42.9%) from distance with Butler 4-15 (26.7%) from downtown. Cowley was 20-29 from the charity stripe and Butler was 14-23. Each team turned the ball over 10 times.

Branch finished with 17 points while Leavell had 11. McCormick had five points and seven rebounds off the bench, Kerr had five points and five rebounds and AJ Pierre-Jerome had four points, three rebounds and two critical blocks.

Cowley was led by Whitlock's 17 points on 6-13 shooting, 4-8 from three. Zeigler had 12 points and seven rebounds and Dallas Whitney chipped in 10 points.

Butler, the five seed, opens the Region 6 Tournament on Saturday at the Power Plant hosting the 12-seed Pratt Beavers in the first round. The time will be announced when made available. The winner advances to play 4-seed Hutchinson on Tuesday, March 11th.