Coming off a tough road loss at Seward Tuesday night, the Butler women's basketball team bounced back with a big road win Saturday afternoon knocking off Colby 67-53 to give the Trojans their first loss of the season.
Butler dominated the first quarter outscoring the Trojans 17-7 while holding them to shooting just 3-14 from the floor and forcing six turnovers in the quarter. It was a more balanced second quarter as Colby went 4-4 from outside the arc cutting into the Butler lead and trailing the Grizzlies 36-30 at the break.
A dominating third quarter by the Grizzlies led by Jelesa Gross and Carissa beck would seal the victory for Butler as they outscored Colby 21-11 to take a 16 point 57-41 lead into the final quarter of play. The fourth quarter was the lowest scoring quarter for the Grizzlies, but more wasn't needed as Butler held on in the final ten minutes of the contest to win the game 67-53 breaking Colby's eight-game win streak.
Carissa Beck and Jelesa Gross led the offensive attack most of the night for Butler as Beck shot 5-7 from three-point range scoring a team high 17 points while adding four rebounds and two assists. Jelesa Gross finished with 16 points, tying her season high and pulled down nine rebounds. RaVon Nero was the other Grizzly in double figures scoring 11 points with five steals, four rebounds and three assists. Camille Downs finished with nine points and Maddy Willis-Rosa chipped in eight.
"Both Carissa and Jelesa were great for us offensively tonight. Jelesa can be a dominant offensive threat we just need to get her going and tonight she got it going. We all know Carissa can shoot it and she showed that tonight. It is great to have a consistent outside threat in Carissa," said head coach Mike Helmer after Saturday's win.
Butler shot 44 percent from the floor and 43 percent from behind the arc while holding the Trojans to 32 percent from the floor and 31 percent from deep. The Grizzlies forced 22 turnovers while recording 12 steals in the game and scored 20 points off Colby turnovers.
Butler, (8-4, 1-1) will host Dodge City (6-3, 1-1) on Wednesday, December 4 at 5:30pm for their home conference opener.