Beyond the Box Score: Second-half surge pushes Bulldogs past Hoyas

Sophomore guard Karsyn Norman hit the game-sealing free throws against Georgetown. Photo by Jonathan Wang.

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

After nearly a month straight without stringing together two victories in a row, the Bulldogs secured a season sweep at Georgetown in a strong 76-70 showing.

Just three minutes into the game, the Dawgs found themselves on the brink of a kill shot up 8-0 to start the game; however, in the blink of an eye, it was a 25-20 deficit heading into the second quarter.

Going into halftime, the Hoyas held a slim 38-36 lead over the Dawgs as sophomore guard Riley Makalusky used a strong second-quarter showing to head into the locker room with a perfect 100% clip from beyond the arc — finishing with 16 points.

Georgetown blitzed the Bulldogs to get out to a 44-38 at the start of the third quarter, senior forward Sydney Jaynes poured in 12 third quarter points to lead the charge on a 22-6 run that spanned into the fourth quarter.

As Butler has shown all year, a comfortable win is something that cannot be done. With the Hoyas clawing back to a 73-70 deficit thanks to a 7-0 run in the midst of the fourth quarter, the ending scenes in Washington D.C. started to look all too familiar for the Dawgs.

With a minute to play, the game’s fate fell into the hands of an unlikely hero: sophomore guard Karsyn Norman. Three clutch free throws down the stretch by Norman helped secure the sweep for the Dawgs.

Looking ahead

Outside of the Feb. 22 match-up against AP No. 7 UConn, the remaining four regular season games are against teams with inferior records than the Dawgs.

Sitting in eighth place in the conference with a 4-10 record, it will be improbable for the Bulldogs to get the coveted first-round bye for the conference tournament. However, a seventh-place finish would be an ideal consolation prize. This would enable Butler to avoid a third game against UConn in the second round pending the first-round win.

The climb to seventh-place starts Feb. 16 in Madison Square Garden against St. John’s.