The Butler men survived another close game down the stretch to defeat the Pratt Beavers 60-52 on Saturday night, giving the Grizzlies their fifth straight win and moving them into a tie for third place in the Jayhawk West Conference.

Butler is now 21-6 overall and 9-4 in the conference standings, tied with Barton. Hutchinson and Seward County are tied atop the conference standings with 11-2 records. The Grizzlies have guaranteed themselves a top-four finish in the conference standings, meaning they will host a first-round playoff game two weeks from tonight.

For Butler, the fifth consecutive win was much like the previous three in that the Grizzlies had to battle back from deficits throughout the game. Early, Butler used an 8-0 run to take an 18-13 lead.

Butler trailed 24-18 with two minutes to play in the first half, but gained the momentum at the break by going on an 8-2 run. The Grizzlies got a 3-pointer by Shomari Triggs with 25 seconds left in the half that tied the score 26-26 to end the period.

Pratt scored the first four points of the second half, but the Grizzlies scored seven straight to regain the lead at 33-30 with 16:58 to go. Butler would hold the lead for most of the second half, but Pratt would storm back to take a 50-49 lead with 3:09 to go in the game.

Butler would have one last surge. Shomari Triggs hit a tough baseline floater as the shot clock was expiring to give the Grizzlies a 51-50 lead they would not relinquish. The Grizzlies would outscore Pratt 10-3 over the final three minutes to secure the win, including a steal and dunk by LaMont Pruitt with 30 seconds to play.

Pruitt led Butler with 12 points, while Bakari Triggs had 11 and Sean Goodwin and Shomari Triggs had nine apiece. Sean Michaelson, Bryan Hellman and DeShun Roberts scored 10 points apiece to lead Pratt in scoring.

Butler will now go on the road for another conference game at Cloud County. The Grizzlies defeated the Thunderbirds 73-53 in January.