The Butler women pulled away from Cowley late on Saturday in a 62-47 victory at the Power Plant, securing a season sweep of the Tigers.
Butler, which beat Cowley 81-74 on the road in November, used the same formula in this win. The Grizzlies fell behind early, came back to take a lead at the half and then held the Tigers at bay in the second half.
This time, Butler trailed 11-7 at the end of the first quarter, but charged back to take a 15-14 lead on a layup by Kendriana Washington with 2:34 left in the half.
Cowley answered quickly to regain a lead at 16-15, but Butler scored the final four points of the half – all from Kyeria Hannah – and led 19-16.
Cowley would get as close as one point early in the third quarter, buy Nakylia Carter drained a 3-pointer with 3:03 left in the third quarter to put Butler back up 24-20. Butler scored the final seven points of the quarter, holding Cowley scoreless for the final 2:20, and led 36-26 going to the fourth. The lead was pushed into double digits on a 3-pointer by Alecia Gulledge with 14 seconds left in the period.
Butler's lead never shrunk below double digits in the final quarter, and Butler led by as many as 21 after Reagan Sanchez made a pair of free throws that made it a 55-34 game with 3:33 remaining.
Butler had a fairly balanced attack offensively, led by 13 points from Kyeria Hannah and 11 from Kendriana Washington. Alecia Gulledge added 10. Raven Prince just missed a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds.
Butler held Cowley to just 26 percent shooting, including 15 percent from 3-point range (4-27). Butler also outrebounded Cowley 40-29 in the game.
The Grizzlies improve to 15-5 overall and 12-5 in Jayhawk Conference play, while Cowley falls to 16-7 overall and is now also 12-5 in conference play. The Grizzlies will play next at Allen County on Wednesday.
