Story by Wyatt Ebersole
The Butler Women suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of the Garden City Broncbusters on Saturday afternoon. The loss is the Grizzlies third in their last five games and is their third straight loss on the road. The defeat drops them to 22-6 overall and 17-6 in conference play. The win for the Busters is just their second in their last seven games and is their tenth win of the year, moving them to 10-19 overall and 7-15 in conference play.
The Women started out hot, breaking out to a quick 11-2 lead after a layup by Dayuna Colvin with 5:52 left in the first quarter that forced a quick Broncbuster timeout. This would be the last lead the Grizzlies would hold as just two minutes later, the Busters flipped the script, going on a 10-0 run to put themselves in front 12-11, and they ended the first quarter up 14-11.
The Garden Women continued their big run, making it a 20-0 scoring run early in the second quarter and going up 22-11 just 90 seconds into the second frame. Randi Harding cut the lead back to single digits on the next Grizzly possession, but Garden went back up by double-digits just a minute later and they carried a 34-21 lead into the locker room.
The third quarter spelled much of the same. Garden City led by 14 or more points the entire quarter and the Broncbusters led 49-35 after the first three quarters.
To start the fourth quarter though, the Grizzlies came out with some fire and gave themselves a chance to win the game. Three straight layups in under a minute sparked an 8-0 run for the Grizzlies that pulled them within single digits at 53-47 with 6:38 left to play. Garden managed to grow their lead back to double-digits two minutes later, but the Grizzlies would answer behind a pair of free throws each from Freddie Wallace and Kaylee Nero that cut the deficit back to six. The teams traded layups and pairs of free throws for nearly the whole rest of the quarter, but the Grizzlies broke that trend with a three from Randi Harding that cut the Broncbuster lead down to just three points at 65-62, but with just 30 seconds left to play. Garden then converted on two free throws on their next possession, but again the Grizzlies found a three, this time from Jaila Harding that made it a two-point game with 19 seconds left. Garden then stepped to the free throw line and made one of two, making it a three-point game, and giving the Grizzlies a chance to tie and force overtime. It was not to be however, as the Grizzlies couldn't generate a quality look in the final seconds and Jaila Harding's off balance three from the corner came up short giving Garden City a 68-65 win.
The loss for the Grizzlies means that they are locked into the #3 seed in the upcoming Region VI Playoffs, as they now cannot catch second place Barton (19-4) and cannot be passed by fourth place Hutchinson (16-7) due to Butler holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Blue Dragons.
The Grizzlies play their regular season finale at home on Wednesday, March 1st against Independence.
