Junior guard Finley Bizjack scored a game-high 29 points against Eastern Michigan. Photo by Drew Kosmak.
DAVID JACOBS | MANAGING EDITOR | drjacobs@butler.edu
The men’s basketball team continued its winning ways with a convincing 84-68 triumph over Eastern Michigan (EMU).
It was a back-and-forth start in this one as the Eagles shot 48% from the field and a blistering 85% from deep. Despite the lights-out shooting, the Dawgs entered the locker room up 41-36 behind 14 points from junior guard Finley Bizjack and 13 points from graduate forward Michael Ajayi.
“They came in, and they were on fire in the first half,” head coach Thad Matta said. “Some of those [makes] were just horrendous defense on our part … Those are the things we’ve got to get cleaned up.”
EMU strided out to as large as a four-point lead late in the first half, but a 10-point barrage from Ajayi in the last five minutes of the half helped lift the Dawgs back in control of the lead.
As the game matured, so did the Bulldog lead as the Dawgs slowly but surely flexed their Big East muscles against the Eagles.
Bizjack picked up right where he left off in the first half, scoring seven points in the first five minutes of the second frame to extend the Butler lead to double-digits.
“On gamedays, coach Matta looks at me [to say] the rims looking big,” Bizjack said. “It’s like our thing now, every time he does it, I hit a couple. But, I’m working every day to make sure that the results come, and it’s coming right now.”
While the Eagles fought hard to keep the Dawgs within reach, the game turned a bit chippy.
With 9:27 left to play, Eagle redshirt senior guard Addison Patterson converted a monstrous dunk over first-year guard Stink Robinson to cut the deficit down to 10, leading to an altercation between the two.
Patterson was assessed a technical foul, while Robinson received a flagrant two and was subsequently disqualified. However, that was all the momentum the Dawgs needed to put Eastern Michigan away for good.
“We had a meeting at the timeout, and I told everyone it’s a bar fight,” Bizjack said. “They were trying to punk us and we responded accordingly.”
Butler outscored EMU 17-5 following the altercation, all but cementing its eventual victory.
Bizjack led all scorers with 29 points — matching a career-high six three-pointers — as Ajayi cemented his seventh double-double of the year, logging 19 points and 13 rebounds.
“I thought the guys did a great job,” Matta said. “It was a very physical game.”
Additionally, first-year guard Efeosa Oliogu-Elabor saw his first action of the year, contributing two points in 12 minutes of action.
“It’s good to see Efeosa get some minutes again,” Matta said. “It’s been since the second half of the Notre Dame game, and we go to keep building him into it.”
The Dawgs will be back in action against Boise State on Saturday as they look to enter conference play with a five-game win streak.
