A win will always make you feel good, especially at KJCCC win, but this one felt a little sweeter for first year head coach Kyle Fisher as he defeated his former coach/mentor Saturday 71-64 in front of a great home crowd.
"When that final buzzer went off, I felt relief," said head coach Kyle Fisher after Butler's win over the school he spent the last seven seasons at. "It was weird. The last few days had been weird because we are really good friends, really competitive and I know those players really well but I didn't want to make this about me or coach Herk (Herkleman), it was about our players and a big conference game with playoff implications."
Butler trailed only once in the game and that was early in the first half. The Grizzlies jumped out to a 16-point lead with 2:07 left in the first half but a Coffeyville 9-0 run would end the half with Butler only leading by seven at the break.
"We completely collapsed at the end of the first half," said Fisher. "We totally let them back into the game where we could have had a big lead at the half."
Coffeyville would climb within two points at the seven-minute mark of the second half but couldn't close the gap any more as the Grizzlies made late free throws to win 71-64 giving them sole possession of second place in the KJCCC East.
Javaunte Hawkins came alive scoring a team high 17 points on 3-4 from three-point range. Shawn Hopkins finished with 16-points and seven rebounds and was 8-10 from the free throw line. Grehlon Easter chalked up 14 points, two of which was a game changing dunk that ended a scoring drought for the Grizzlies and ignited the offense. Juwan White was the other Grizzly in double-figures with 11-points.
"The difference in the game was just toughness coming down the stretch. We knew it was going to be a tough battle and our guys played with a lot of passion and toughness in this one," commented Fisher.
Butler (17-6, 10-4), is back home on Wednesday, February 5th playing host to Cloud (8-15, 2-12) who is currently in last place in the KJCCC East. That game is slated for a 7:30pm tip.
