After winning the Region VI Championship 324 days ago, the Butler Women's basketball team finally got back into game action last night as they cruised to a 64-34 win over Tabor College junior varsity in their season opener.
"It was a great feeling to be out on the court again," said sophomore forward Tamara Nard. "It has been a long time since we won out in Dodge City and we have been looking forward to this moment for a while now."
Butler got off to a slow start offensively scoring only 10-points in the first quarter while allowing only four from the Bluejays. With the help from Skyla Knight and Tamara Nard, they followed it up with back-to-back 20-point quarters and held a comfortable 50-28 lead heading into the final ten minutes.
The Grizzly defense held the Bluejays to just six points in the final quarter while they scored 14-points to win the game 64-34.
"It wasn't very pretty but we played," said head coach Mike Helmer now in his 13th season. "We have a lot to work on but couldn't be happier to be playing games again; this is good for all of us."
Retuning All-American from last season Tamara Nard led the team with 14 points on the night. She had three steals, two assists and two rebounds. Sophomore transfer guard from Arkansas Little Rock, Skyla Knight, had a nice debut in the purple and gold as she went for 12 points, six steals, five rebounds, three assists and one block in the game.
Paris Mullins, sophomore transfer from Walters State, had eight points and eight rebounds while also dishing out four assists on the night (game high). Freshman Kaylee Nero finished with eight points and three rebounds.
Butler shot 52% from the floor while only connecting on 22% from deep. They outrebounded the Bluejays 34-25 and forced 28 turnovers in the contest with 17 steals. The Grizzlies held Tabor to shooting only 23% from the floor and 2-19 from three-point range. The Bluejays struggled at the free throw line making just 6-18.
Next Up: With the shortened schedule this season due to COVID-19, the Grizzlies will jump right into KJCCC play as they host Colby on Wednesday, January 27 at 5:30pm.
Notes: This is the Grizzlies seventh straight win…dating back to last season...Their last loss happened on Feb. 10 against Independence...The last time the Grizzlies held an opponent under 40 points was on November 2, 2018 in a 45-30 win over Kirkwood.
