Butler Offense Stymied by Coffeyville in Loss at Power Plant

EL DORADO, Kan. – Outside of a strong fourth quarter, Butler women's basketball could never get its offense rolling in the right direction in a 61-53 loss to Coffeyville on Saturday afternoon at the Power Plant.

The Grizzlies (17-4, 11-4 KJCCC) were held to 26.5% (18-68) shooting from the field by the Red Ravens (15-7, 10-6). Butler is now a game back from Barton who is in third place. Coffeyville is a game back from the Grizzlies.

The game was completely flipped from the first meeting between the two as Butler dispatched Coffeyville 68-50 at Nellis Hall on Nov. 29th.

Coffeyville opened the game taking a 5-0 lead as Karys Washington put in a layup and hit a three. They stretched the lead to 14-5 with 4:09 to go in the quarter before Butler responded with a 7-0 run to cut it to 14-12. Alba Cunill hit a three off a Maycee James assist, Freddie Wallace hit two free throws and J'unti Franklin knocked down a pair from the free throw line. Coffeyville's Bailey Layman hit a three with 14 seconds in the quarter and the Red Ravens took a 17-12 lead into the second quarter.

The second quarter saw Butler take its first lead of the game as Tiana Winn made a layup following an offensive rebound just a minute and a half into the quarter to make it 18-17. The rest of the quarter was all Red Ravens as they went on a 10-0 run trailing 20-19 to take a 29-20 lead as Layman hit consecutive threes. Coffeyville led 33-23 at halftime.

The game was back-and-forth in the third quarter with Coffeyville edging the Grizzlies out 16-14 to take a 49-37 lead to the final quarter.

Butler made a significant run in the fourth quarter. Trailing by 12 at the start, they outscored Coffeyville 16-2 over the first five minutes and 45 seconds to take a 53-51 lead, their first since the first quarter. Wallace and Dayuna Colvin each poured in six points over the stretch with Wallace putting layups in and Colvin draining two threes.

Following them taking the 53-51 lead, the Grizzlies did not score again over the final 4:14 as Coffeyville outscored them 10-0. Butler was 0-8 during from the field during that stretch as well as missing two free throws.

Wallace led Butler in scoring with 14 points. She also pulled down nine rebounds and had three steals. Colvin had 13 points and three assists. Winn had seven points and 11 rebounds. James led Butler with six assists and four rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

Layman led all scorers with 17 for Coffeyville. Tetona Woods-Blackowl had six assists and three steals while Ivy Fox finished with 11 points and six rebounds, while Karys Washington and Kyleigh Ortiz also scored in double figures with 10 and 11 points each.

Both teams shot an identical 5-21 (23.8%) from distance. Butler shot 12-18 (66.7%) from the free throw line and Coffeyville shot 10-11 (90.9%). The Grizzlies outrebounded Coffeyville 45-42 and forced 18 Red Raven turnovers to 15 of their own.

Butler returns to action on Wednesday, Feb. 7th at 5:30 p.m. in Great Bend vs. Barton.