Butler women win outright Jayhawk East title

Butler women celebrate as KJCCC champions

The Butler women are outright Jayhawk East champions after a 67-42 home win over Coffeyville on Saturday at the Power Plant in the final game of the regular season.

Butler finishes 25-4 overall and 16-4 in Jayhawk Conference play. Cowley finished as the runner-up on the East at 14-6. With the win, Butler gets the top seed out of the East in the upcoming Region VI Playoffs.

Butler will play Saturday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at Hartman Arena in Park City.

Butler trailed just once against Coffeyville, and that was 3-2. Butler would score seven straight to go ahead 9-3 and led 15-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Taylor Burch would hit a 3-pointer less than a minute into the second quarter to put Butler up by double digits at 18-7.

Coffeyville would cut Butler's lead back to eight at 24-16 with 4:33 left in the quarter, but would not score again in the first half. The Grizzlies went into intermission on a 10-0 run and led 34-16.

Butler pushed the lead to 20 when Kyla Callins scored a layup to make it a 36-16 game less than a minute into the third quarter. Butler led 50-27 after three quarters.

Butler's biggest lead was 30 points, after another 3-pointer by Taylor Birch made it a 59-29 game with 6:20 to play.

Butler had balanced scoring, with no players in double figures. Jalise Smallwood, Criste'On Waters, Camille Downs and Awreona Ransom each had nine points apiece, while Lauryn Snipes added eight. Waters and Callins tied for team highs in rebounds with eight, while Callins also had a team-high three steals.