Drayton Jones logged a team-high 15 points against No. 6 UConn. Photo by Darcy Leber.
DAVID JACOBS | MANAGING EDITOR | drjacobs@butler.edu
The men’s basketball team continued its ugly unraveling on Feb. 11, dropping its fifth game in a row and falling 80-70 to No. 6 UConn.
It was an enthusiastic start for the Dawgs out of the gate, converting on nine of their first 13 shots from the field to help grow as large as a 24-18 first-half advantage.
With an improved effort on full display early on, the on-court energy soon became contagious throughout Hinkle Fieldhouse, creating one of the best environments the Old Barn has seen in quite some time.
Led by a pair of timely threes from sophomore guard Evan Haywood and a steady interior presence from junior center Drayton Jones, the Bulldogs were able to ride that energy to keep battling with UConn.
However, the Huskies did not obtain a 22-2 record by rolling over in the face of adversity. After settling in, head coach Dan Hurley’s squad went 8-of-13 to end the first half and take a 41-38 lead into halftime as the Dawgs converted just one of their last five attempts.
“The first half was a f—ing joke,” Hurley said. “It was an extension of the second half of the St. John’s game, where we gave up 60% [from the field]. So, at that point, we were giving up around 57% from the field in our last two halves of basketball. Maybe it was the residual of having a long winning streak burst, but I thought it was more about Butler. They took it out of us; the stuff they do on offense is tough to guard.”
Coming out of the locker room, the Huskies got out to a 51-43 advantage as junior guard Finley Bizjack continued to struggle to get any shots up after making just one of his team-low two attempts from the field in the first period. However, the Big East’s leading scorer was able to use the added defensive attention and dish out five assists before exiting the game late with an apparent wrist injury.
“Both he and Mike [Ajayi], our two leading scorers, weren’t scoring for us,” head coach Thad Matta said. “But, they combined for 11 assists, and I think that tells you the caliber of players that they are. Obviously, [UConn’s] game plan was to take those two out of it.”
With Butler’s top scoring options limited to a combined 4-of-16 from the field, it was the rest of the roster to step up when Matta needed them most. Headlined by the two big men, as Jones logged a team-best 15 points while senior center Yohan Traore contributed 14 off the bench.
“I’m excited with how the other guys played off them,” Matta said. “You know they’re going to be the focal point [for the opponents]. Don’t get me wrong, we need them to score, but give them credit. They stayed focused and just kept playing.”
Despite the shooting inefficiencies from Bizjack early on, the Bulldogs found themselves in the thick of it late in the second half, thanks to a seven-point spurt from Traore and persistent defensive effort throughout.
As the under-four media timeout approached, the Huskies slowly grew their lead with a barrage of timely three-pointers, including the sixth triple of the night from junior guard Solo Ball.
“Solo Ball is a tremendous player, and he got going tonight,” Matta said. “With the switching we were doing, I thought we had challenges on them and they did a great job [to exploit that].
With the loss, the Dawgs plummet to last in the Big East. Up next, Butler faces a Seton Hall squad firmly on the bubble, with the Bulldogs hoping to secure a season sweep on Feb. 15.
“Because of everything that has happened to us, we’ve got to keep finding ways to get better,” Matta said. “We’re playing a really good Seton Hall team on Sunday, and I just want to be better … I can’t let our guys say, ‘This is who we are,’ I can’t allow us to be who we are in February. We’ve got to keep growing. We’ve got to keep finding ways to get guys better.”
