Skid Snapped as Grizzlies Clobber Broncbusters at Home

EL DORADO, Kan. – The Butler Community College men's basketball team showed no signs of lingering heartbreak on Wednesday evening at the Power Plant.

The Grizzlies (19-9, 14-8 KJCCC) bounced back from a buzzer beating loss at Hutchinson on Saturday to defeat the surging Garden City Broncbusters (15-13, 10-12) 86-59. The win for the Grizzlies snapped a two-game losing streak. The 27-point win is the third largest margin of victory in conference play for Butler this season. The Grizzlies move to 8-4 in home contests thus far.

Butler did not trail in the game. Bubba Leavell nailed a three for the first points of the game 24 seconds in and Russell Branch followed with a three of his own, being fouled in the process to get the 'Black Out' crowd in the Power Plant involved early. The Grizzlies pushed the early run to 13-0 before Garden City got on the board with a Caleb Smith free throw. The first Broncbuster shot made came at the 10:10 mark as they trimmed the Butler lead to 22-5.

Leavell finished with a season-high tying 24 points to lead all scorers as he shot 6-12 from distance. Branch stuffed the stat sheet tallying 13 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Devonte Reed added 10 points off the bench with Seven Bahati and Rashad McCormick adding seven points each. The Grizzlies used a big starting lineup starting both forwards Emeka Opurum and AJ Pierre-Jerome for the first time all season.

The Butler defense held Garden City's Antonio Chol well below his average of over 20 points per game as he finished with 10 points on 3-18 shooting. It was his second lowest output this season. As a team the Broncbusters shot just 29.1% (16-55) while the Grizzlies connected on 44.1% (30-68) of their shots, 13-30 from three-point range. It marked the first time since Nov. 7, 2023, that Garden City shot less than 30 percent from the field. Butler outrebounded Garden City 47-32 and assisted on 20 baskets compared to Garden City's seven. Boston Harker led the Busters with 17 points and five rebounds shooting 8-10 from the free throw line.

Halftime saw Butler take a 40-21 lead into the locker room. The Grizzlies put up 46 second half points led by Leavell's 16.

Butler's next game comes on Saturday when they travel to Concordia for a 4 p.m. tipoff with the Cloud County T-Birds at Arley Bryant Gymnasium.