Butler improves to 4-1 on the season with the win over Merrimack College. Photo by Eleanor Angelly.
CALEB DENORME | SPORTS EDITOR | cdenorme@butler.edu
The Bulldogs grabbed another win emphatically on Friday night, drubbing Merrimack College 78-39 thanks to a second-half surge. Let’s go beyond the box score.
A first-half defensive battle and Pierre Brooks’ big night
The first half of this game was a defensive slugfest. Butler played suffocating man-to-man defense on their end of the floor while Merrimack changed up zone schemes to keep the Bulldogs guessing.
The Dawgs did not turn the ball over as much as usual, but at times they still struggled to create open looks. The plus side is that Butler locked up sophomore guard Budd Clark on the other side of the court. Typically averaging 21 points a game, Clark was held to just 8 points on 4-13 shooting.
The Bulldogs would eventually find their offensive legs courtesy of senior forward Pierre Brooks. Brooks had 15 points on 6-8 shooting in the first half — the only Dawg to finish with double digits at halftime. Brooks was pleased with his hot start to the contest.
“When you see the ball go in like that it kind of keeps you in the game,” Brooks said. “It keeps you going into the flow of the game.”
Brooks’ fiery offensive start helped Butler build a six-point lead heading into halftime. His hot streak continued after the break, finishing with a double-double of 23 points and 12 rebounds. Head coach Thad Matta joked that Brooks’ 12 rebounds were “more than he had all of last year,” but Brooks sees his rebounding effort as a pathway to the next level.
“Being a scorer, but also being an all-around player … I think that can help me get to the next level,” Brooks said. “We came in with a game plan to crash that glass hard and that’s what we did.”
An explosive second half
Butler’s second-half performance can only be described as an absolute blowout. The Dawgs outscored the Warriors 41-8 in the second 20 minutes.
The Dawgs began the half on an 8-0 run and never looked back. After 20 minutes, Butler doubled Merrimack’s total final score with 33 more points in the second half than their opponents. Matta attributed this dominance to his team but also knew fatigue had a part to play.
“[Merrimack] missed some open looks,” Matta said. “They were tired. We knew going in [we had to] wear them down. I thought our guys did a heck of a job.”
One of the biggest factors in this performance was the Bulldogs’ ability to rebound the basketball. Butler finished with 51 total rebounds while Merrimack only had 23, a difference of 28 boards. This emphasis on cleaning up the glass limited the Warriors’ ability to get back into the game and pushed the Dawgs further out in front.
Another big catalyst for the second-half boom was the play of fifth-year center Andre Screen. Screen had 8 points and 4 rebounds in the second half, taking advantage of Merrimack’s smaller size when Butler ran out of space on offense. The Bulldogs dumped the ball into Screen and let him go to work.
This win will carry Butler into the holiday season with confidence in their stride. After a streak of five straight home games, the Dawgs will now hit the road for the Arizona Tip-Off tournament. The Bulldogs will take on Northwestern on Thursday, Nov. 28 down south in Tempe.
