Story by Wyatt Ebersole
The Butler Men's Basketball season came to a close on Tuesday night at the hands of the defending national champion Northwest Florida State Raiders in Hutchinson 71-59. The Grizzlies season ends at a remarkable 26-9 and this is the Grizzlies best finish at nationals in a season since 1996 when they finished in third place. With the win, NW Florida advances to NJCAA Elite Eight on Thursday.
The game got off to a slow start offensively with both sides playing great defense. Javon Grant found the first basket of the game three minutes in to put the Grizzlies in front 3-0 early. NW Florida responded with a 7-2 run to jump in front for the first time with 16 minutes left in the half. Caleb Golden put home a monster one hand slam with 15:03 left to tie the game back up a 7-7, but NW Florida found a quick answer to go back up 9-7 at the under fifteen-minute media timeout. NW Florida continued to pound away and had build their lead up to 18-8 at the under ten-minute media timeout. The Raiders continued to stifle all of the Grizzlies offense in the first half, holding the Grizzlies to just two points over an eight-minute stretch, but the Butler Men held strong enough on the defensive end to keep the game within reach through the first fifteen minutes of action. With 4:54 left in the half, the Grizzlies were still looking for answers offensively, down 10-24 to the NW Florida Raiders. Javon Grant broke the Grizzlies major scoring drought with a top of the key three and Rob Brown followed that with a right wing three to cut the deficit down to 12 with 2:30 left in the half. Brown hit another jumper to cut the lead down to ten points a minute later and then traded some free throws with the Raiders to keep the deficit ten. NW Florida got a steal and basket as the clock hit zeroes to take a 32-20 lead into the halftime locker room.
The Grizzlies had one of their coldest shooting halves of the season, going 6/25 from the field and 2/11 from three in the half.
The Butler Men made some early progress on the deficit, cutting the lead under double-digits early in the second half, but an 8-0 Raider run made it a 17-point game again with 16:12 left to play. NW Florida continued to stuff the Grizzlies offense and they managed to make it a 22-point advantage with 13:21 left in the half at 48-26. Rob Brown and Treylon Payne each banged home a three to cut the deficit back to 16 with 11:40 left to play, but NW Florida put together another quick run to jump back up by 22 at 54-32 with 9:43 remaining in the game. The Grizzlies showed a lot of fight, once again getting a nice run and cutting their deficit back down to 13 points with 5:18 left to give them a fighting chance. Rob Brown came up with a steal and basket out of the press with 2:17 left to make it 67-57 and the Grizzlies were really threatening a comeback, but the Raiders finished with some baskets and free throws down the stretch to close out the game 71-59.
The Grizzlies went toe-to-toe with the Raiders in the second half, but it was the early shooting struggles in the first half that did the Grizzlies in.
Rob Brown led the Grizzlies in scoring with 17 points, shooting 6/12 from the field, and 3/7 from deep.
It's not the way the Grizzlies wanted their season to end, but they posted their best record in eight years and won the NJCAA Region VI and Plains District title for the first time since 2010. The Grizzlies also picked up their first win at the national tournament in 26 years with Monday's win over Roane State. The Grizzlies win over Roane State made it the eighth straight year that at team from Jayhawk Conference and Region VI won a game at the national tournament
