Story by Wyatt Ebersole
The Butler Men's and Women's basketball teams will make the hour-long trip to the Sports Arena in Hutchinson this Saturday to continue their near century old rivalry with the Hutchinson Blue Dragons. Both Grizzly teams will look be looking to continue their recent hot streaks as the women have won nine straight games and will need a win on Saturday to continue to compete in the race for first place in the Jayhawk Conference.
The 21st ranked Butler Women will clash with the receiving votes Hutchinson Blue Dragons for the 92nd time in series history since the teams began playing each other in 1976. Hutchinson holds an all-time series lead of 59-33 and they are 29-13 in games played in Hutchinson in the history between the teams. The Grizzlies have not beaten the Blue Dragons in Hutchinson since February 10th, 2018, and have lost two straight games to Hutch at the Sports Arena. The teams are 4-4 in their last eight meetings and Hutch has won three of the last five. The Blue Dragons are also undefeated at home this season (12-0) and have only lost four games at home since the 2018-19 season (71-4 record over that span). The Grizzlies are 5-22 in the Mike Helmer era against Hutchinson.
The Grizzlies defeated the Blue Dragons in their first meeting of the season 55-40 in El Dorado. The Butler Women won the game by outscoring Hutch 19-2 in the fourth quarter with the only Blue Dragon bucket of the fourth quarter coming in the closing seconds with the game already decided. The Grizzles won the game behind their defense as they held Hutchinson to season lows in scoring (40 points), shooting percentage (27.1%), free throw percentage (50%), and free throws made (3), while also forcing more Blue Dragon turnovers than any other Hutch opponent this season with 21. The Butler Women held Hutchinson's leading scorer Mya Williams (17.7 PPG average this season) to just 8 points on a 16.7% field goal percentage, both of which are her second worst marks of the season.
The Blue Dragons are led offensively by Williams as mentioned who is fourth in the conference in points per game. The other main Blue Dragon offensive threats are Monae Duffy who averages 12.3 points per game and Journey Armstead who averages 10.2. On the glass, the Blue Dragons are led by Duffy who averages 8.3 rebounds per game followed closely by Kali Howard who averages 7.3.
The Grizzlies are led by on the offense this season by Freddie Wallace who is fresh off a career best 31-point effort against Coffeyville on Wednesday. Wallace on the season averages 17.6 points per game but has been on a tear recently averaging 21.4 points per game over her last five games and doing so while shooting well over 50%. Freddie was dominant in the Grizzlies earlier season win over Hutch scoring 25 points and pulling in 11 rebounds to earn a double-double. Freddie accounted for half of all Grizzly field goals and almost half of the Grizzlies points in the win over Hutchinson.
With a win, the Grizzlies would improve to 20-3 on the year and 15-3 in conference play, setting up a battle with first place Dodge City on Wednesday the 8th. With a loss against Hutch, the Grizzlies would need to win Wednesday's game against the Conqs to remain in serious contention for the conference title race.
