Lily Zeinstra had a career-high 18 points against Xavier. Photo by Jonathan Wang.

DAVID JACOBS | SPORTS CO-EDITOR | drjacobs@butler.edu

After a gut-wrenching road loss to Xavier a month ago on Jan. 18, the Dawgs were able to defend home court with a 58-53 victory over their conference rivals on Feb 19.

The win did not come without adversity; though, as senior forward Sydney Jaynes abruptly went down late in the first quarter — grasping her ankle — as Hinkle Fieldhouse went into a pit of silence out of shock and concern.

On a team that has already seen season-ending knee injuries with guards senior Caroline Strande and junior Jordan Meulemans, and has recently been without first-year guard Lily Carmody with an ankle injury — losing Jaynes was like salt in an open wound.

“At one point I look over on the bench and you got Meulemans, Strande and Carmody out with injury,” head coach Austin Parkinson said. “Then our second-leading scorer and best offensive post threat is out and it’s like, ‘What do you do?’”

Going into the second quarter tied at 11 with the shock of Jayne’s injury still fresh, the Dawgs leaned on first-year guard Lily Zeinstra and senior guard Ari Wiggins to get out to a quick 25-13 lead.

Zeinstra kept her second-quarter momentum to go 4-6 from the field and notch a career-high 18 points in the win.

Coming out of halftime, the pressure was on the inexperienced group to stick together and prevail for a much-needed conference win with just four juniors and seniors available to play.

“I was really proud of our kids,” Parkinson said. “[Lilly] Stoddard was awesome with her rebounding and defense, she had a few blocked shots. Then, Zeinstra made her free throws and got to the foul line and was really tough from an offensive standpoint.”

Throughout the game, Xavier continually maintained pressure on the Bulldogs to keep their foot on the gas — forcing several lengthy droughts throughout the game.

While the Dawgs may have been fortunate that the Muskies shot just a 38.5% clip from the field, one place where they thrived was interior cuts to the basket which generated a plethora of easy buckets all game long.

“Cristen [Carter] and Stoddard are really good, Stoddard is our best defensive post,” Parkinson said. “It was more our guards were lunging and trying to be aggressive in the passing lanes to push them out.”

At the turn of the fourth quarter, Butler led by as many as nine points but quickly found itself up just 52-51 with under forty seconds to play.

A situation that has become far too familiar throughout the season — whether with the Dawgs coming from behind or trying to cling on to a lead — these clutch situations have resulted in six of Butler’s 14 losses.

Then in comes senior guard Kilyn McGuff — who had been surprisingly quiet all game — flying into the paint from the perimeter to secure the rebound and hand the ball off to sophomore guard Karsyn Norman for the game-sealing set of free throws.

“We made enough plays,” Parkinson said. “We were flying around and that was key. We had 11 offensive rebounds, and if we don’t get those rebounds we probably don’t win the game.”

With the Bulldogs picking up their fifth conference win they put pressure on Providence, Georgetown and St. John’s as they now hold sole possession of seventh place in the Big East — setting themselves up for a matchup against the Friars on March 7.

The Dawgs will be back in action on Feb. 22 as they play host to graduate guard Paige Bueckers and AP No. 5 UConn.