It didn’t take much doing, but the Butler Bulldogs made quick, easy work of the IUPUI Jaguars on Wednesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse and ran away, literally, with an 87-55 domination of their intra-city foe.
It’s probably a good thing that IUPUI’s campus is just on the west side of downtown Indianapolis. After losing by 32 points to Butler, they were reluctant to have just a short bus ride back to campus.
In the first nine-plus minutes, the Bulldogs stormed out to a commanding 20-2 lead that would grow even bigger throughout the remaining 30 minutes of play. That run that only began Butler’s mission to completely bury the Jags and it was highlighted by 6 points from Khyle Marshall; five from Kellen Dunham and Kameron Woods had four during that span.
IUPUI got a couple layups from Donovan Gibbs and Sean Esposito to trail just 23-6, but Butler made another run that was aided by eight from Erik Fromm (off the bench) and seven from Rotnei Clarke to push the Dawgs up 35-8.
Clark and center Andrew Smith combined for 10 to spark a 17-13 run to close out the first half, 52-21.
Already up 75-44 with 7:21 left, freshman guard Devontae Morgan did his part in reviving the Bulldog faithful and Hinkle. An alley-oop from Erik Fromm and Morgan flew through the air for an electrifying slam dunk. It wound up as the #1 play of the day on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10.
The Jaguars might have stuck right with Butler in the second half (35-34), but Brad Stevens’ squad did all the little things that will help them throughout the season. Their assist-to-turnover ratio was 2-1 (21 assists to 9 turnovers). IUPUI committed 19 turnovers, 14 of which were steals by the Bulldog D, five via the hands of Roosevelt Jones. Shooting 52% from three-point range (11-21) and 56% overall (30-54) were a couple big factors that helped quickly separate the Bulldogs from the Jaguars.
Spreading out the scoring and playing completely unselfish is exactly what Butler did for 40 minutes of basketball. Fourteen Bulldogs played and 11 provided scoring. Rotnei Clarke and Kellen Dunham led the way each with a game-high 17. Andrew Smith had 11, while Khyle Marshall and Erik Fromm both added 10 to round out the five Butler players in double-figures. Butler’s bench scored 46 points, including Dunham with 17 in 21 minutes, Kameron Woods with six and five rebounds and Jackson Aldridge with five points and five assists.
Wednesday night’s game at home against IUPUI was a game to figure out what different players were capable of doing and what they could be counted to do. One big example is that sophomore guard Alex Barlow got his first career start, grabbing four boards and three assists while showing the coaching staff how much more depth they can expect in the backcourt as the season progresses.
Butler has quite the challenging remaining schedule during the rest of the month of December. This Saturday, the Dawgs head to Welsh-Ryan Arena to meet up with Northwestern at 8 p.m. Next Saturday, will be their biggest test of the season. Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis will pair up Butler with #1 Indiana in the Close the Gap Crossroads Classic. The final two Saturdays in December, the Bulldogs will host the Evansville Purple Aces (Dec. 22) and take a trip to Nashville, Tennessee and get a little taste of the SEC at Vanderbilt (Dec. 29).
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