Butler men knock off #5 Cowley in regular-season home finale

Behind a loud atmosphere at the Power Plant, the Butler men knocked off Jayhawk East champion Cowley 105-94 on Wednesday night in the home regular-season finale.

The win not only ended Cowley's 12-game winning streak, but was Butler's fourth win over a top-25 team as the Grizzlies secured the East No. 2 seed for the upcoming Region VI playoffs beginning next Wednesday.

Butler (22-6 overall, 15-4 conference) battled its way through Cowley's aggressive full-court press, either getting open basket opportunities on the other end or getting to the foul line courtesy of 31 fouls by the Tigers (25-4, 17-2), who came into the matchup ranked fifth in this week's NJCAA poll. The Grizzlies converted 46-of-54 free throws – including 29 charity makes in the second half – enroute to the win.

"That was the whole deal, being able to handle their pressure and keeping them out of transition," said Butler head coach Kyle Fisher. "It's amazing to say you do a good job when you have 22 turnovers, but our spacing was very good.

"They changed their press in the second half and we made a bit of an adjustment," Fisher added. "I gave our guys a lot of freedom on the back end of the press to go make plays and we consistently made them and got to the foul line. That was the difference in the game."

Javaunte Hawkins scored 19 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, while sophomore Kamron Brice added a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds to help the Grizzlies win their sixth straight game.

Brice turned the tide for the Grizzlies early in the second half with nine straight points, beginning with consecutive 3-pointers to give Butler the lead. Moments later, Brice added a dunk while getting fouled in transition to ignite the crowd. After Brice's bonus shot, Butler held a 58-53 lead with 14:00 to play.

"It was a big turnaround, especially in that moment," Brice said about the 9-0 run. "It was just an extra boost to get over the hill."

"I thought we had the momentum once we tied the game and took the lead," said Hawkins. "We knew once we slowed the game down, it was going to be tough to play with us at home. We took the momentum and ran with it and made smart decisions. We had a few mistakes, but we made more good plays than bad."

Leading 74-67 with 8:17 to play, Butler kept pace with Cowley by making 10 straight free throws, with Shawn Hopkins and Marque English both hitting four charity shots.

The momentum reached its peak after an English block led to a transition basket by Brice on the other end. Brice was fouled on the play, then added the bonus foul shot for an 89-78 lead with 4:59 remaining.

Cowley made one last gasp after closing the margin to four, 94-90, as Martaveon Jones made two foul shots, then followed with a 3-pointer at the top of the key with 2:33 remaining.

However, Ndongo Ndaw was fouled following a timeout and a technical foul was assessed to Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme. Hawkins made 1-of-2 technical shots, then Ndaw made both of his foul shots to put Butler in front 97-90 with 2:01 to play. Along with a Grehlon Easter layup, Butler made 6-of-6 foul shots in the final 1:28 to pull away for the win.

Cowley led throughout most of the first half after Butler took an early 4-0 lead, getting a Ndongo Ndaw dunk on the game's opening possession and a Marque English pull-up jumper in the lane.

After trailing 16-10, Butler made a 13-4 run to take a brief lead midway through the half. Both Brice and English hit 3-pointers, which knotted the contest at 20-all just before the media timeout. Following the brief break, Ndaw made 1-of-2 foul shots and Easter added a driving lay-in for a 23-20 lead with 9:07 remaining before halftime.

Cowley responded with a quick 10-2 lead in a 1:50 span to take a 32-25 lead, then stretched the lead to nine with 3:26 before half.

Butler climbed back to force a tie behind an 11-2 run by beating the Cowley press, getting consecutive baskets from English and Brice to begin the spurt. Hawkins later added a basket in transition to pull the Grizzlies within two.

Following a Cowley basket, both Juwan White and Hawkins made two free throws each to tie the game at 43-all. Cowley took the lead into the locker room on a Shemarri Allen 3-point play with 18.7 seconds left.

Butler finished with five players in double figures, as English (18 points, eight rebounds, two blocks) and Ndaw (11 points, eight rebounds) nearly reccorded double-doubles. Easter added 13 points, four assists and two blocks.

Cowley came into Wednesday's matchup by leading the nation with 111.4 points per game and had eclipsed the 100-point mark in nine of its last 10 games – including a school-record 143 points nine days ago in a road win at Cloud County.

Butler held Cowley to under 38 percent (33-of-87), which was the Tigers' second-worst shooting performance of the season. Not only did the Grizzlies get revenge after a 106-87 loss at Arkansas City back on Jan. 29, but the Grizzlies handed Cowley just its second loss in conference play.

"It's a great win, because it's the next win and they're all important – especially in Jayhawk East conference play," Fisher said. "We learned that we can play with anybody and that will help us moving forward in the region tournament. We feel like we're playing really good basketball and this is the time to be playing good ball."

Following the contest, Fisher and the entire team made its way over to the student section and thanked the group for their loud support during the game.

"It was an unbelievable atmosphere in here tonight," Fisher said. "Baseball really showed up and football came through for us. All the student-athletes and all the community members… I'm so grateful, because our guys have worked so hard and deserved to play in a game like this – meaningful basketball in February in front of a great crowd. It was a lot of fun and a great win for us."

"Everybody wanted it tonight, especially coming at the Power Plant, where it's hard (for the opponent) to win," Brice added. "We didn't want anyone coming in here beating us, so we took that personal."

Butler finishes out the regular season on Saturday with a 7:00 p.m. road game at Coffeyville. The Grizzlies defeated the Red Ravens 71-64 back on Feb. 1 in El Dorado and will be going for its first season sweep of Coffeyville since the 2016-17 season.