Junior guard Kennedy Langham was second in points scored for Butler with 13. Photo by Jada Gangazha.

NHU-HAN BUI | ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR | hbui@butler.edu

After a defense-heavy game, the women’s basketball team was handed its first loss of the season by Columbia, falling 74-69 to the Lions in overtime.

In their first game of the year, the Lions dominated the first half on both sides of the ball. Junior guard Riley Weiss scored 13 of her team’s 29 points, while the defense was led by senior guard/forward Perri Page, who had 10 rebounds and six steals.

After a slow start, Butler jumped out of halftime with renewed energy, scoring 18 points to even the game up. The fourth quarter saw both teams trade scores, sending the game to overtime tied at 60 points.

Head coach Austin Parkinson felt that his team did well defensively during regulation, as they forced Columbia into hard scoring situations.

“I thought we made them take tough shots,” Parkinson said. “They shot 40% [in regulation and] 62% in overtime and we struggled there, but up until then, it was a lot lower, so we guarded it well. To their credit, [Page] and [senior forward Susie Rafiu] are incredibly physical, and we were smaller on the perimeter, so we knew that was going to be a challenge. But overall, I think our kids are heading [in] the right direction.”

The teams went back and forth during overtime, but the Bulldogs let the Lions pull away with a six-point run, which would ultimately decide the game.

Taking a team that made it to the NCAA Tournament to overtime is no small feat, and Parkinson feels there is a lot his squad can take away from it.

“It’s encouraging,” Parkinson said. “It’s just nice to be in those positions. I mean, you look at the fourth quarter, it was 27-26 us. Not a lot of defense was played during that portion, but maybe we weren’t as fresh, maybe I didn’t sub as well as I could have. But it’s good to be in these positions so that we can learn. And as I told the players in the locker room, this will be beneficial, because we had a lot of different things that we can take away.”

One area that Butler will look to improve on is turnovers. The Bulldogs committed a total of 29, many of which happened during transition play.

“We had 29 [turnovers] which is wild, but their press wasn’t a wild trap,” Parkinson said. “This was not them [trapping us], this was us out in transition and hitting the trombone player.”

With several lessons learned from the game, Butler will look to get back in the win column as it faces Central Michigan on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.