The Butler women, winners in six of their last seven, continued their winning ways as they defeated the Neosho County Panthers 67-39 inside the Power Plant Wednesday night.
With the win, the Grizzlies improved to 19-7 overall and 9-6 in Jayhawk Conference play, while the Lady Panthers fell to 10-16 and 2-14.
Tamara Lee made 6 of 8 from the field, 2 of 3 from 3-point range and finished with a game high 15 points to help lead the Grizzlies.
Neosho jumped out to an early three point, 7-4 at the 8:04 mark of the first quarter, and that would be the only lead the Panthers would have for the game, as Butler closed the quarter on a 7-2 run and was leading 9-11.
Butler doubled up the score of the visiting Panthers in the second and third quarters to help widen the margin. The Grizzlies used an 11-3 run midway through the third quarter to extend the lead to 50-28 heading into the fourth.
The lead would get as large as 31 points with 4:15 remaining in the fourth courtesy of a pair of free throws by Sophomore Janee Arnold. Arnold, finished with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and 2 steals.
Once again, free throws and rebounding was key for the Grizzlies as they connected on 22 of 29 (75.9%) from the charity stripe and cleaned the glass grabbing 35 total rebounds, 16 more than the visiting Panthers. Of the 35 total rebound, 14 of them were offensive.
Defensively, the Grizzlies put the clamps on holding Neosho to just 25% shooting from the field and just 20.8% from long range. The 39 points surrendered by the Grizzlies marked the fourteenth time this season that they have held their opponents to under 45 points for a game.
Butler is the conference leader in points allowed this season, holding opponents to just 52.4 points per game and also leads the conference in three-point field goal percentage defense at 25.2%.
The Grizzlies return to action Saturday at 2 p.m. as they play host Coffeyville inside the Power Plant.
