Graduate forward Michael Ajayi logged a game-high 21 points and 12 rebounds against Seton Hall. Photo by Andrew Buckley.
DAVID JACOBS | MANAGING EDITOR | drjacobs@butler.edu
Looking to end a tumultuous five-game skid, the men’s basketball team continued its recent struggles in the absence of leading scorer, junior guard Finley Bizjack, en route to a 63-56 loss to Seton Hall.
With an injury-plagued front court, the Bulldogs struggled immensely from the get-go to put forth any competent offensive sets, leading to an unhealthy dose of isolation basketball and a disgusting 28% rate from the field.
Graduate forward Michael Ajayi was the biggest spark of normalcy for Butler, logging 11 of his 21 points in the first period as he became responsible for the overall well-being of the Bulldog offense.
Without much guard depth, the Dawgs had a combination of Ajayi, first-year guard Efeosa Oliogu-Elabor and graduate guard Yame Butler taking the ball up the court.
“When I say [playing undermanned] has been a challenge, that’d probably be an understatement,” head coach Thad Matta said. “We’re figuring it out on the fly. Up until around shoot around [we] thought Fin[ley] was going to play, but he just couldn’t do it.”
Despite the immense deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball, the Dawgs were able to force seven first-half turnovers and benefit from a 28.6% free-throw percentage to help take a narrow 24-23 lead into halftime.
With Ajayi being tacked with his third foul of the game early in the second half, Seton Hall became rejuvenated and noticeably became more aggressive on both sides of the floor. Namely, with its scrappy press defense that was deployed religiously against a Butler squad that lacked all of its best ball-handlers.
“When they [pressed us] in game one, [first-year point guard] Azavier [Robinson] just took off and made plays,” Matta said. “That’s where we were a little bit disheveled, and understandably so. We just have to continue to try to simplify things, and we have to make shots.”
As the second half matured, the Dawgs began to settle in offensively, nailing a flurry of timely threes to regain a seven-point lead. Thanks in large part to the assertion of Butler in the second half, logging six of his seven assists and keeping the Bulldog offense afloat after logging a DNP against UConn.
However, the Pirates’ continued offensive aggression soon paid dividends in an uber-efficient 58% clip in the second half, including 15 points from graduate guard AJ Staton-McCray.
That efficiency would ultimately be the breaking point for a scrappy Bulldog squad that ran out of gas with three fewer players in rotation than the Pirates, highlighted by season-high playing time from first-year forward Jackson Keith and senior center Yohan Traore.
Dropping a season-worst six games in a row, the Dawgs hit the road against Georgetown to try to salvage any sort of momentum before the conference tournament.
“For this group that we have right now, we’ve got to take great pride,” Matta said. “We got to keep fighting, scripting, clawing [and] thinking … Let the chips fall where they may.”
