Butler Unable To Get By T-Birds

CONCORDIA, Kan. – The Butler men's basketball team lost 86-83 at Cloud County on Saturday afternoon in Arley Bryant Gymnasium.

Butler (19-10, 14-9 KJCCC) was unable to get over the hump in the loss to the T-Birds (12-17, 6-17) after previously beating them 89-70 at the Power Plant in mid-January. The win for the T-Birds snapped a four-game losing streak while Butler is 2-3 in their last five.

The Grizzlies outrebounded Cloud 49-27 but saw the T-Birds shoot 48.1% to the Grizzlies 39.4% as well as allowing 11 T-Bird threes to Butler's eight. Cloud County shot 25-31 (80.6%) from the free throw line while Butler shot 18-26 (69.2%).

The first half saw a handful of lead changes. Butler took a 32-31 first half lead with 3:39 to play but two triples from Cloud's Fallou Koite helped the T-Birds to a 39-34 halftime advantage. Cloud extended its lead to 48-40 early in the second half and pushed it to 10 at 56-46 with 11:54 to play but the Grizzlies kept battling. A Rashad McCormick three tied the game 60-60 with 8:54 to play. Cloud pushed the lead back to eight as Amare Johnson hit a three to make it 70-62. The Grizzlies cut the T-Bird lead to one point with 1:13 to play as Russell Branch canned a top of the key triple to make it 78-77 but the Grizzlies were unable to get a stop without fouling down the stretch and Cloud converted on its free throws.

McCormick and Devin Kerr led the Grizzlies with 14 points with Kerr pulling down seven rebounds. Branch and Bubba Leavell each scored 12 points but each player shot 4-15 with Leavell 2-10 from three. Branch added seven rebounds and five assists. Emeka Opurum added a double-double off the bench with 10 points and 11 rebounds – six offensive boards.

The Grizzlies are set to close the regular season out on Wednesday as No. 6 Cowley travels to the Power Plant for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. The Grizzlies are locked into the No. 5 seed in the upcoming Region 6 Tournament and will host the to be decided 12 seed on Saturday in El Dorado.