The Butler Bulldog fans welcomed senior guard Rotnei Clarke back to the starting lineup with open arms and gave the faithful sellout at Hinkle Fieldhouse quite the game to take in on a Saturday night in Indianapolis.
Clarke poured in 24 points and dished out 9 assists in his first action in 3 games since going head first into the backboard support while going up for a layup at Dayton on January 12. As anxious as Rotnei was to get back on the court, team physicians recommended that he take two weeks to get himself back to a healthy status.
Temple got itself out to a 10-4 lead before Butler could really blink. A few possessions later, Clarke converted on three free throws after he was fouled attempting a three. Then, their next trip down, Rotnei found himself right back at the line to sink a couple more charity tosses to get Butler back into the game and only down 10-9.
The visitors from Philadelphia were able to sustain this lead until 9:07 left in the first half. Butler was down 21-14 and was finally able to climb their way out of the hole the had dug. With two three-pointers from Kellen Dunham and a jumper from Clarke, put Butler up briefly (22-21). Temple regained the lead one more time on a Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson dunk (23-22), but wouldn't lead again the rest of the game.
Kameron Woods scored four consecutive to tie things at 26-26. Butler's next time down the floor on offense, Clarke nailed a three to put Butler in front for good, 29-26. Temple kept it close and brought it back to just a three-point lead at the half with a three from Jake O'Brien to trail just 37-34.
Khyle Marshall scored 7 of Butler's first 14 in the second half to help the Bulldogs jump out of halftime on a 14-4 run for what would be their largest lead all night at 51-38.
Then, things got a little interesting from Temple's standpoint. Hollis-Thompson was a big part of an 18-5 run, with 7 of his 11, that evened the game up at 56-56 with 8:12 remaining.
Butler played with the sense that they couldn't and wouldn't lose for the final eight minutes of the game. Their leading scorer was back and it was time to get in a groove again and stay on track. The Bulldogs jetted their way to win #17 with a 27-15 takeover in the final eight minutes and ran away with an 83-71 A-10 win.
The win over Temple put Butler alone atop the Atlantic 10 conference standings with a 4-1 league mark. The A-10 is such a tight league that there are five schools right on their heels with a 4-2 conference record (Charlotte, VCU, LaSalle, Xavier and George Washington) that will be a challenge for Butler the rest of the way.
Overall, Butler was 52% from the floor (26-50) and the Owls were 24-59 for just 41%. Three-point shooting was a big plus for both with Butler going 8-of-20 (40%) and Temple sticking right with them with a 9-for-18 performance outside-the-arc. Obviously, both teams shot decently well from the field, but it really came down to free throws and how many trips Butler could make to the charity stripe compared to Temple.
The Bulldogs were 23-29 (79%) and Temple was 14-18 (78%). Temple (13-6, 2-3 A-10) was led in scoring by Khalif Wyatt with a team-high 22 points, to go along with six assists and four steals. He was joined in double-figures by Scootie Randall (13), Anthony Lee (12) and Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson (11).
The #9 Bulldogs (17-3, 4-1 A-10) chunked their scoring between six players. They were led by Rotnei Clarke with 24 and he also had career-highs with 9 assists and 13-for-14 from the free throw line. Khyle Marshall's offense finally was in full throttle with his 19 points on 9-of-11 from the floor. Kellen Dunham made the most of his time off the bench with 17 points, shooting 6-for-10, including 5 out of 6 from downtown. Roosevelt Jones (9), Andrew Smith (7) and Kameron Woods (7) also pitched it for Butler.
It's possible that Butler will drop out of the Top 10 in the rankings this week, but their loss to LaSalle (Wednesday) became it little more legit than it was first thought to be. LaSalle upset #19 VCU on the road Saturday afternoon for their second win over a Top 25 team this week.
The Bulldogs will hit the road to Saint Louis (14-5, 3-2) on Thursday, January 31 at 9 p.m. to try to finish off the month on a high note. Brad Stevens and his Dawgs will come home to a sold out Hinkle Fieldhouse crowd Saturday, February 2 for an afternoon affair when the Rhode Island Rams (6-12, 1-4) come to town for an A-10 battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment