No. 21 Coffeyville Too Much for Butler on the Road

COFFEYVILLE, Kan. – The Butler men's basketball team fell 83-60 to the hot shooting 21st ranked Coffeyville Red Ravens at Nellis Hall on Thursday evening.

Butler (18-8, 13-7 KJCCC) turns its attention to Hutchinson on Saturday as they travel to the Sports Arena for a 4 p.m. tip in a battle for possession of fourth place in the Jayhawk.

Coffeyville (19-7, 15-5) shot 49.2% from the field and 42.3% (11-26) from distance and held Butler to 34.4% shooting from the field in the win. Red Raven guard Brian Griffith scored a career-high 34 points shooting 6-10 from three.

Butler was outrebounded 43-32 and had just two players score in double figures. The Grizzlies jumped out to a 5-0 lead as Devin Kerr converted a layup and a three. Coffeyville hit consecutive threes to take their first lead and the teams proceeded to trade leads for the first three minutes of the game.

The game turned when Coffeyville ripped off a 22-5 run over six minutes to the 9:36 mark of the first half, taking a 30-12 lead. The Grizzlies whittled the lead down to single digits twice at 30-21 on a Russell Branch three with 5:16 to play and 36-27 on a Cory Muehler jumper with 48 seconds to play in the half but the Ravens took a 41-27 lead to the locker room scoring the final five points of the half.

Butler did not get within 10 points in the second half trailing by as much as 25. The 23-point loss is the Grizzlies' largest of the season and the fourth conference loss by 10 or more points. Coffeyville sweeps the regular season series between the two after also winning 70-61 over Butler in El Dorado on Jan. 4th.

Emeka Opurum finished with 13 points and five rebounds while Muehler scored a season-high 10 points and four rebounds. Devin Kerr pulled down a team-high six rebounds.

Alongside Griffith's 34 points, Justin Taylor added 10 points and Abdul Kata had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Coffeyville.