The Butler Men's Basketball team (10-2, 8-2) picked up their sixth straight victory and eight win this season of 14+ points in their 96-79 route of Neosho.
Neosho shot lights out to start the game as they made 6-9 from three-point range to take a 24-22 lead at the media timeout with 9:38 to play in the first half. Threes from Shawn Hopkins and an offensive spark from Karrington Davis and Noah Thomasson would get a 10-point lead back for Butler at the half, 46-36.
"We got off to a sluggish start and Neosho was shooting the ball well," commented head coach Kyle Fisher, but we came out with more toughness in the second half and had a nice stretch of about ten minutes where we were able to separate ourselves."
Neosho kept their hot shooting going early in the second half closing the gap to five at the 15:18 mark and had it to six with 13:47 to play in the game but a Noah Thomasson three-pointer followed by a layup and the foul gave Butler a quick six points to improve their lead to 12. The Panthers would never get closer than 10 points in the final minutes and Butler finished them out 96-79.
Four of the five Grizzly starters score 18+ points in the game. Shawn Hopkins led the way with 19 points and eight rebounds with three assists in just 23 minutes on the court. Karrington Davis, Noah Thomasson and DeeJuan Pruitt all finished the night with 18 points. Pruitt had nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Thomasson finished with seven assists, four rebounds with a steal and a block while Davis grabbed seven boards in the contest.
RJ McGarthy had a season high eight points with a high-flying dunk in the second half and Donyae McCaskill slammed one home in the final minutes of the game finishing with five points.
"We have seven guys that are averaging almost eight points per game and when we share the ball like we do, we can really score and it can come from a number of guys," commented coach Kyle Fisher.
Both teams shot the ball very well with the Grizzlies at 47% and Neosho shot 45%. Both teams had limited number of turnovers but the difference in the game was the rebounding. Butler won the battle on the glass out rebounding the panthers 41-26 and scoring 21 points off offensive rebounds. The Grizzlies also took advantage of the nine Neosho turnovers turning them into 18 points.
"You can't complain about a large victory in the Jayhawk," said Fisher. "I am pleased with the win tonight, but we have to have more energy and get our intensity back if we want to beat the best teams."
NEXT UP: Butler will focus their attention on the Red Devils of Allen as they will travel to Iola on Saturday for a 4:00pm tip.
NOTES: Grizzlies are 9-1 against the Panthers since the 2016-17 season and have won the last five matchups…Coach Fisher is 19-1 in the Power Plant… four players scored 18+ points.
