Senior forward Pierre Brooks scored a career-high 30 points while also scoring his 1,000th career point on Feb. 15. Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics.
SARAH HOHMAN | MANAGING EDITOR | shohman@butler.edu
The Dawgs handled their third-straight victory with a 97-86 win over Georgetown. This was Butler’s highest scoring game of the season.
Both the Bulldogs and the Hoyas got off to slow starts, including a 3:36 stretch of scoreless basketball on both sides. Potential Big East Freshman of the Year Thomas Sorber went down with an ankle injury with 5:39 to play and did not return.
The first half was all senior forward Pierre Brooks and sophomore guard Finley Bizjack for Butler, leading the team with 17 and 13 points respectively. In the second half, fans saw action from the rest of the roster — ending the game with five Bulldogs in double figures.
In the Dawgs third-straight Big East victory, let’s go beyond the box score.
Pierre Brooks career day
Scoring your 1,000th point and knocking down a career-high 30 points is not a forgetful day. Brooks grabbed the accolades off of 10-13 shooting from the field, shooting 50% from three and going a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line.
“Being a scorer I always look for ways to find advantages,” Brooks said. “I found a lot of advantages tonight, especially in the first half … Whenever my time came I took advantage of the opportunity. Not rushing it, not forcing it … being in the right place at the right time to make plays.”
Brooks attributed his move to Butler and head coach Thad Matta’s belief in him to his accomplishment.
I definitely thought reaching 1,000 points wasn’t going to be possible my first couple years because I wasn’t producing at a high level,” Brooks said. “Coach believed in me and put me in a position to succeed here at Butler. So, just coming here and being able to score 1,000 points in front of a great fan base is great.”
Bench impact
The bench duo of sophomore guard Landon Moore and fifth-year center Andre Screen helped solidify this victory for the Dawgs, especially when the Hoyas showed fight in the second half.
Moore discussed his mindset which helped lead him to a 13-point and six rebound performance.
“Being aggressive from the start can make things go a long way,” Moore said. “I can control my aggressiveness. If I just go out there and I’m hesitant, the rest of my game is going to be hesitant on both sides of the ball, so just being aggressive.”
Matta credited the bench to the Dawg’s ability to keep their lead.
“I think we are playing collectively a lot better as a group and that’s from the bench coming in,” Matta said. “Obviously Landon came in and Andre came in and gave us a great boost … Again tonight as we’ve seen all season, we had a decent lead, they made a heck of a run on us and we were able to get it back up. We finished the game the right way.”
The Dawgs will look to add to their win streak against rival Xavier on Feb. 18.
