Grizzlies come alive late against the Cougars to remain undefeated

It wasn't a pretty game by any stretch, but the Butler women's basketball team, 7-0 overall and 6-0 in KJCCC play, remains undefeated on the year with a 61-54 victory over the Barton Cougars Wednesday night in front of their first crowd of the season.

A rematch of last year's Region VI Championship game saw the Grizzlies and Cougars battling it out once again. Both teams struggled offensively with Barton shooting a low FG% and the Grizzlies not handling the ball well that led to a 27-22 Butler lead at the half.

"I wasn't happy at all with the way we played tonight but I will take the win," said head coach Mike Helmer. "I asked them during the timeout in the fourth quarter, where is our heart? Where is the team we know we can be, and they came out and made enough plays in the end to get it done." 

Barton stuck around and took their first lead of the game at the 9:34 mark of the fourth quarter going up 39-37. They would lead by as many as four in the final quarter, but a Skyla Knight three would give the lead back to the Grizzlies 45-43, and that was a lead they wouldn't relinquish the rest of the way out. Two big alley-oop layups by Tamara Nard and free throws down the stretch extended the Butler lead at they came away with the win 61-54. 

For the fourth time this season, sophomore guard Skyla Knight led the Grizzlies in scoring with 17 points off 6-9 shooting. She had four assists and three rebounds and was 2-2 from 3PT. Tamara Nard scored six of her 13 points in the fourth quarter and finished with seven rebounds. Mekayla Furman was the other Grizzly to score in double figures finishing with a season high 11 points and five rebounds.

For the seventh straight game, the Grizzly defense held their opponent to shooing under 30% from the floor at 29% and 3-16 from 3PT. The Grizzlies shot 42% from the floor and had 21 turnovers, but only one in the final 10 minutes of the game. Butler outrebounded the Cougars 37-22 and finished with 24 points in the paint.

NEXT UP: Butler prepares for a three-game road stint starting out in Goodland, KS this Saturday, February 20 with a 11:30amCT tip against Northwest Kanas Technical College. They will return home and then head back north to Concordia, KS where they will face Cloud County on Monday, February 22 at 6:00pm. They will finish the road trip on Saturday, February 27 at Independence at 2:00pm. 

NOTES: This was the first time the teams have played since the Region VI Championship game last March in Dodge City where the Grizzlies won 84-52…First 7-0 start to a season since the 2018-2019 year where they started 12-0…Seventh straight game holding opponent to shooting under 30% from the floor.