Junior guard Finley Bizjack led the Dawgs with 18 points against SMU. Photo by Drew Kosmak. 

DAVID JACOBS | MANAGING EDITOR | drjacobs@butler.edu 

The men’s basketball team went on the road for the first time and will be coming back home with a gut-wrenching 87-85 loss against Southern Methodist University (SMU). 

Butler started the game off hot, going on a 10-0 run out of the gate, fueled by two quick threes from junior guard Finley Bizjack. 

As the teams settled into the first half, the Dawgs leaned heavily on their three-point shooting once again, going 8-of-15 from beyond the arc in the opening frame. 

Taking a 43-38 lead into halftime, the Bulldogs relied on a slight rebounding advantage and impressive perimeter defense — holding SMU to 0-of-7 from range — to overcome a sloppy 11 turnovers in the first half. 

After the break, the Mustangs quickly caught fire from the field to propel a 15-2 run shortly after the start of the period. Down seven points with 14:29 left in the game, it was the first time all season the Dawgs had to face any sort of adversity. 

Though it was a far cry from a complete crumble under the first true game pressure all year, Butler just could not get a run going in the second half as SMU had an answer for every Bulldog spurt. 

It was not until the Dawgs went down seven with just over a minute left that Bizjack spearheaded a 7-0 run to keep the game alive. 

The Texas native took over the game, logging a steal and two impressive assists that led to three-point buckets from sophomore guard Evan Haywood and graduate forward Michael Ajayi, clawing Butler back to tie it up with 37 seconds left in the game. 

On the opposing end, senior guard Jason Pierre Jr. iced the game for the Mustangs with a second-chance lay-up before Bizjack came up just long on a deep three-point attempt for the win. 

While the Bulldogs undeniably showed their grit and effort this game to tie up the game late, it did not come without nearly 16 minutes of poorly executed play leading up to it. 

The threes stopped falling, and SMU started to flex its muscles as the more athletic team. Something that Butler has previously shown to be in the first half, but could not display for the full 40 minutes of play despite such a deep rotation. 

Down low, the Mustangs’ 7-foot-2 sophomore center Samet Yiğitoğlu was able to control the paint to the tune of 14 points and six rebounds as SMU had 32 more paint points than the Dawgs. On the perimeter, senior guard Boopie Miller logged 23 points and 12 assists before fouling out with just over a minute left in the game. 

Despite the downfalls, it was still an impressive distribution of scoring for Butler with six players at or above nine points, which speaks volumes to its depth. 

Bizjack led the bunch with 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting from deep, while Ajayi chipped in with 14 points and 10 rebounds to log his third-consecutive double-double. 

The Dawgs will have two more tests next week in the Greenbrier Tip-Off against South Carolina and Virginia on Nov. 21 and Nov. 23, respectively.