The Butler women used a 18-0 run in the second quarter to pull away from Otero (Colo.) on Tuesday at the Power Plant and stayed undefeated with a 68-40 win.
Butler led 15-12 after the first quarter, but Otero would get a 3-pointer by Delaney Gaddis at the 8:09 mark of the second quarter to tie the game. Butler's Tamara Lee made two free throws to start the 18-0 run, scoring seven of the team's points in that stretch.
The Grizzlies led 33-15 by that point and would take a 36-21 advantage into the half.
Butler pushed the lead to 20 for the first time when Cassie Pauls made a pair of free throws with 1:10 left in the third quarter and then stretched the lead to 30 when Alex Keller made a pair of free throws with 4:32 left in the game to make it 65-35. Butler led by as many as 32 before Otero scored the final four points of the game.
Tamara Lee, celebrating her 20th birthday, led all scorers with 15 points, which she had in the first three quarters. Nakylia Carter scored 13. They were the only two in double figures for Butler, which had scoring from 11 of the 13 players in the lineup.
Defensively, Butler once again clamped down on an opponent, as Otero made just 15-of-63 shot attempts for 24 percent shooting from the floor. That included 3-of-26 shooting from 3-point range for 11 percent.
Butler is now 4-0 and has not played a game decided by less than 26 points this season. The Grizzlies have an average margin of victory of 37.5 points per game. Otero falls to 2-3 on the season with its first loss to a Kansas team. The Rattlers had beaten Barton (90-76) and Northwest Tech (85-76) in its previous two games.
The Grizzlies will play two home games this weekend, facing Tabor JV at 5:30 on Friday and Southwest Christian at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
