Butler women dominate Dodge 95-39 to finish regular season

Butler women dominate Dodge 95-39 to finish regular season

EL DORADO, Kan. – The Butler women continue to roll as the regular season comes to an end, as the Grizzlies dominated Dodge City by a 95-39 score on Wednesday night at the Power Plant.

With the victory, the Butler women finish the regular season at 23-6 overall and 13-3 in Jayhawk West Conference play. Butler is 52-7 in the regular season over the past two years and has gone 25-3 in conference play in that time with a conference championship last year and a conference runner-up finish this year.

The Grizzlies now begin play in the Region VI Tournament. Butler will host a first-round playoff game at 2 p.m. on Saturday against Colby. With a win, Butler would advance to the Region VI quarterfinals on Wednesday at Wichita State's Koch Arena.

Butler fell behind 5-2 in the early going after a 3-pointer by Talisha Presley with 18:18 to go in the first half. Butler would then hold Dodge City scoreless for more than nine minutes, going on a 27-0 run, blowing the game wide open. After a jumper by Elayna Spilker with 9:33 to go in the half, Butler led 29-5.

The Grizzlies led 49-20 at halftime and pushed the lead past 40 when Amari Dennis scored just seconds into the second period. Two minutes later, Ashley Gibson made history as she became just the fourth woman in program history to score 1,000 points in a two-year career when she stole the ball and drove the length of the floor for a layup that made it a 55-20 game.

Butler's 95 points are the most points scored in a conference game this year and is the fourth-highest output this season behind 116 points against Central Nebraska, 105 against Allen County and 97 against Neosho County. This is the third conference game in which Butler held an opponent to 39 or fewer points in a game.

Kynadi Johnson led Butler with 25 points off the bench, while Ashley Gibson had 23 points and led the team with seven rebounds. Amari Dennis had 12 points and Sarah Parker had nine points while also drawing five charges on the defensive end.