Story by Wyatt Ebersole
In their first national tournament appearance in eight years, the Butler Men largely dominated in their opening round win over the Roane State Community College Raiders out of Tennessee. The win for the Grizzlies in their fifth straight and improves them to 26-8 on the season. This is the first time the Grizzlies have had more than 25 wins in a season since the 2014-15 year when the Grizzlies won 29. The loss for Roane State ends their season at 23-6.
The Grizzlies started the game on a big run, dominating the paint early led by Isaac Ondekane who scored six early points to put the Grizzlies up 12-3 in the first four minutes of the half. The Grizzlies extended their lead to double digits for the first time at 15:30 mark of the half at 15-5 after a top of the key three by Javon Grant. The Grizzlies fired away from three-point range early making their first six attempts to jump out to a huge, early 29-8 lead with 11:42 left in the half. After a quick 7-0 run by Roane State, the Grizzlies got back four points and a nothing but net three from Caleb Golden brough the lead back to 18 points at 35-17 with 5:54 left to go in the half. The Grizzlies lead in the half grew to as big as 22 at the 3:31 mark of the half at 43-21 after a nice tip-in by Charles McClennahan. The Grizzlies carried their early hot shooting into a big lead at the half, leading 47-27 after the first twenty minutes. The Butler Men were on fire in the first half, shooting 17/29 from the field and finishing 7/10 from behind the arc.
Roane State showed some major fight in the second half cutting the lead down to eleven points at 50-39 with 14:19 left to play. The Raiders kept rolling, cutting the Grizzly lead all the way down to just six points before Christian Richardson found an nice putback, and-1 layup to swing some momentum back to the Grizzlies. Roane State continued to fight back and made it a one possession game with still 9:57 left in the half. The Grizzlies found some fire out of the media timeout. Caleb Golden found a tough layup inside, a follow up and-1 from Tahjae Hill, and a fast break layup by Golden made it a double-digit lead for the Grizzlies again, taking a 63-53 lead with eight minutes left to play. The Grizzlies maintained a double-digit advantage into the under-five minute media timeout, needing just a few more buckets and stops to salt the game away. Treylon Payne delivered a monster jam with 3:30 left to play, then he followed that up with an impressive acrobatic layup that grew the Grizzlies lead back out to fourteen points with just over two minutes to go. Tahjae Hill made two free throws, then Ondekane found an easy basket down low, and then Isaiah Williams scored on a backdoor layup to make it a 19-point Grizzly lead and the Grizzlies had put the game away, picking up the opening round win over #23 seeded Roane State 85-66.
Tahjae Hill had a huge game, leading all scorers with 21 points, shooting 7/12 from the field and a perfect 2/2 from three. Isaac Ondekane nearly put a double-double, scoring 12 points and pulling in nine rebounds. Treylon Payne, Javon Grant, and Caleb Golden all broke into double figures scoring 12, 11, and 10 points each.
Interestingly, the Grizzlies did not make a three in the second half, going 0/8 from behind the arc after going 7/10 from three in the first half.
The Grizzlies advance and will face #7 NW Florida State tomorrow night at 8:30 PM.
NOTES: Butler wins the first ever meeting with Roane State…This Butler's first win at the national tournament since 1996 when they beat Connors State in the third-place game…Butler breaks their three-game losing streak at the national tournament
