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Butler Community College Athletics

Kirkwood’s Last Second 3 Delivers Butler Top-15 Win at Indian Hills

OTTUMWA, Iowa – In a back-and-forth affair at the Hellyer Center on Saturday evening, it was the Butler Grizzlies who came out on top, 87-86, over No. 11 ranked Indian Hills to close out the Meridian Credit Union Classic.

Photo Credit: Gunner Daugherty
Photo Credit: Gunner Daugherty
Box Score
November 2, 2024

OTTUMWA, Iowa – In a back-and-forth affair at the Hellyer Center on Saturday evening, it was the Butler Grizzlies who came out on top, 87-86, over No. 11 ranked Indian Hills to close out the Meridian Credit Union Classic.

The Grizzlies trailed 86-84 with 12 seconds to play in regulation. Freshman guard Josiah Kirkwood took the inbounds pass from sophomore Kaeson Fisher-Brown, used a pick at half court and got just enough room on the left wing in front of the Butler bench to bury a three with just 0.7 seconds remaining to eventually earn the Grizzlies a top-15 win on the first weekend of the 2024-25 NJCAA men's basketball season.

Kirkwood, a freshman from Kansas City, Kan., finished with 14 points on the evening but no point bigger than the final dagger. The win pushes Butler to 2-0 on the young season after defeating Sauk Valley 91-57 on Friday. Butler now gets set to travel to Tonkawa on Tuesday, Nov. 5th, for a 6 p.m. game at NOC-Tonkawa.

The game saw 14 lead changes and seven ties. Indian Hills led 44-42 at halftime as the Grizzlies shot 6-14 (42.9%) from three to keep pace with the Warriors. Indian Hills took its biggest lead of the game, an 11-point lead at 63-51, with 12:38 to go in the second half.

Butler immediately responded with back-to-back threes from sophomore guard Russell Branch. Branch shot 5-8 from three, finishing with 15 points to go with three rebounds and assists. The Grizzlies tied the game 70-70 with 7:24 to play with a pair of free throws from sophomore guard Bubba Leavell and took their first lead of the half just one minute later on another pair of free throws, those from freshman wing Devonte Reed.

A three from freshman wing Rashad McCormick gave Butler an 81-76 lead at the 2:44 mark but Indian Hills stormed back to tie the game 81-81 on its next two possessions. The teams exchanged leads over the final two minutes with Indian Hills hitting a jump shot with 14 seconds left to go ahead 86-84 before Kirkwood sent the Grizzlies home winners.

Leavell was Butler's leading scorer for a second straight game finishing with 18 points and four rebounds. He was 4-7 from three-point land. Freshman forward Emeka Opurum tallied 11 points, eight rebounds and four blocks off the bench. Indian Hills was led by William Beugre-Kassi's 24 points and nine rebounds.

As a team Butler was 15-30 from three compared to Indian Hills' 7-25 (28.0%). Butler was outrebounded 39-33 and turned the ball over 16 times to the Warriors 11. They outshot IHCC from the field, 48.4% to 45.2%.

Butler is now 2-1 all-time vs. Indian Hills.