Story by Wyatt Ebersole
A poor shooting night for the Grizzlies led to their demise for the first time in ten games as they fell on the road to the Dodge City Conquistadors 70-63 at the Student Activity Center in Dodge City on Wednesday night. As mentioned, the loss for the Butler Women breaks their ten-game win streak and drops them to 20-4 overall and 15-4 in Jayhawk Conference play. The win for the Conquistadors means that they have nearly locked up the conference title race, now taking a three-game lead over second place Butler.
The Butler Women got off to their slowest start in recent games as Dodge City jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first five minutes capitalizing on early Grizzly offensive mistakes. Solid defense by the Grizzlies kept the game close and a Randi Harding three with 4:34 left made it an 8-5 game and a layup from Jaila Harding made it 8-7, two minutes later. The Grizzlies wouldn't score the rest of the quarter and a 5-0 Conq scoring run to end the quarter made it 13-7 Dodge City after the first ten minutes.
Both sides remained cold to start the second quarter, behind an exchange of turnovers and missed shots through the first three minutes. Dodge City extended their lead to double digits with an elbow three to make it 19-9 with 6:50 left in the half. Freddie Wallace would cut the deficit back to single digits with a tough jumper that made it 22-13 and a pair of Kaylee Nero free throws cut the Conq lead to seven. Nero would score seven of the next nine Grizzly points to keep the game within reach for the Grizzlies with under a minute to play in the half, but Dodge City ended the half on a 5-0 run to give themselves a 34-22 advantage at the break.
The Grizzlies offense remained out of rhythm to start the second half, going scoreless through the first two minutes of the quarter, but a great defensive effort for the Grizzlies kept the deficit manageable. The Conq lead was drawn back down to eight after a corner three from Jada Knight and a tough layup from Jaila Harding made it 39-31 with 5:26 left in the third. Both teams managed to find some offensive rhythm and they would trade the next several baskets, keeping Dodge up by near ten over the next three minutes. A pair of inside buckets from Nero with under three minutes left once again made it just a seven-point deficit for the Grizzlies trailing 47-40 with 1:55 left in the third. Freddie Wallace would find the last basket of the quarter, a fastbreak layup with under 30 seconds left to make it 47-42 Dodge with ten minutes until the finish line.
Nero would find the opening fourth quarter bucket that made it a one possession game, but a quick 7-0 Dodge run put them back up 52-44. The Grizzlies followed that up with a quick 6-2 run of their own to make it a four-point game with 6:25 left. Freddie made it a two-point game on the next possession with a right-side jumper, but another scoring spurt for the Conqs made it 61-52 with under five minutes left. The Grizzlies weren't going away as they again pulled within four with under three minutes to play, but the Conqs would get another late run that would seal the Grizzlies defeat and Dodge City walked away with a 70-63 win.
The Grizzlies return home on Saturday the 11th to face Cloud County at 2PM.
NOTES: Butler is 14-5 against Dodge City since 2011, but are now 0-4 since Landon Steele became the Dodge City head coach in 2021 and have lost four straight…Butler head coach Mike Helmer is now 0-5 all-time in his career against Landon Steele…The Butler Women have not beaten Dodge City since January 30th, 2021…No Butler Athletics team has won a game in Dodge City's Student Activity Center since Butler Volleyball swept Dodge City on September 27th, 2021 (0-4 record since then)
