In a game that was originally set to be played this Saturday, the Seward Saints over power the Grizzlies in Liberal handing Butler their second loss of the season in a 86-64 finish.
The Grizzlies came out strong to start the game taking a 20-13 lead at the media timeout midway through the first half. After that, the switch flipped for the Saints and they outscored the Grizzlies 24-8 to finish out the half.
They kept firing in the second hitting a quick jumper and then a three-pointer to start the half. They forced Butler into a season high 24 turnovers in the game, something the Grizzlies haven't done much of this season.
Shawn Hopkins and Keyon Thomas both had a team high 11 points in the loss. DeeJuan Pruitt and Treylon Payne finished with 10 points each. Shae Mitchell led the team in rebounds with 10 on the night.
Butler shot the ball well enough to win the game shooting 47% FG and 32% 3PT, but the 24 turnovers plagued them in the loss. Seward scored 33 of their 86 points off Grizzly turnovers while also connecting on 41% from three creating the perfect storm the Grizzlis were not able to handle.
"We stood too much on offense and they took us out of our rhythm," said head coach Kyle Fisher. "I was happy in the way we started but we couldn't maintain and that goes back to the last two days of practice. We didn't practice well the last two days and seemed to be out of sorts with the schedule changes. We thought we were going to play four games this week instead, we have played one with another set for Saturday, that threw us off some in our preparation."
NEXT UP: Butler (4-2, 2-2) will host Colby on Saturday, February 13 at 2:00pm in El Dorado, KS. This game was originally scheduled for January 27th but do to COVID issues with the Trojans, the game was rescheduled for Monday, February 8. That game got postponed due to weather and now the Grizzlies are set to play Saturday.
NOTES: This is the Grizzlies first loss to Seward since March 1, 2018…Fewest points scored in a game since Jan. 18, 2019.
