The Butler women tied the program record for consecutive wins and continued to keep a stranglehold on first place in the Jayhawk East Conference with a 96-65 win on the road at Independence on Wednesday.
The win is the 20th straight for the Grizzlies, who are ranked eighth nationally. That ties the 2002 team, which won 20 straight games to start the season and was ranked No. 4 nationally for several weeks that season.
Unlike it has in other conference games, the Grizzlies didn't blaze out to a big lead immediately at Independence. Midway through the first half, Butler was only up 24-16 at the half. For the rest of the first half, however the Grizzlies dominated, outscoring the Pirates 25-10.
Butler's largest lead of the first half was 25 points, when Terryauna Godwin made a layup with 44 seconds to play that made it a 49-24 lead. The Grizzlies led by 23 at the intermission, 49-26.
The Grizzlies played even with Independence for most of the second half, with the 31-point margin at the end of the game being the largest lead of the contest.
Te'era Williams led Butler in scoring with 26 points while Ashley Gibson added 21. Ashlee Ivy and Teanna Reid were also in double digits with 11 points apiece. Terryauna Godwin scored nine, Alli Heimerman had six, Shayla Williams and Bethany Howard scored five apiece and Shelbe VanderBerghe scored two.
Butler is now 22-1 overall and stays undefeated in conference play at 5-0. Butler will return home for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff against Neosho County at the Power Plant.
