Michael Ajayi scored a team-high 26 points and 13 rebounds against Creighton. Photo by Andrew Buckley.
DAVID JACOBS | MANAGING EDITOR | drjacobs@butler.edu
Both the men’s basketball team and conference foe, Creighton, crawled out of the gates during a rainy afternoon bout as a second-half collapse led to a 76-59 defeat against the Bluejays.
With a combined 7-of-29 effort from the field to start the game, it was not until after the under-12 media timeout that both squads started to get comfortable offensively.
As the teams settled in, graduate forward Michael Ajayi continued his season-long dominance, scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds in the first half. The Dawgs also got some much-needed life off the bench from graduate guard Yame Butler with a perfect 2-of-2 showing from the field to pair with two steals and a block.
“Michael’s been tremendous,” head coach Thad Matta said. “He’s been asked to do a lot of different [things], and it’s made him a better player. There [have] been so many things that we’ve had to go through, and he just keeps playing, keeps going.
As the first half came to a close, the Bulldogs were able to enter halftime with a 36-32 lead, riding the momentum of a 9-of-16 stretch from the field over the last 10:36 of first-half playtime.
Despite the strong end to the half, the first 20 minutes of action still brought plenty of sights for sore eyes as both squads combined for 14 turnovers and a 6-of-26 showcase from beyond the arc.
Starting the second half, the Bluejays quickly flipped the script on Butler with a 12-0 run out of the locker room to force a timeout by Matta.
Coming out of the timeout, it took a brief rain delay and an additional three-plus minutes of game time before Ajayi was able to break the seal and get the Dawgs’ first points of the second half with just over 14 minutes left to play.
As the game continued to mature, though, Butler still could not find its footing in the second, scoring just six points in the first 10:35 of playtime to go down 16 points at the under-12 media timeout.
“We were able to string some stops together,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “We haven’t had a lot of runs like that this year, but we were active with our ball screen coverage, and Butler missed some shots they normally make as well.”
By the time the under-8 media timeout came, boo-birds filled the air of Hinkle Fieldhouse as fans filed down the aisles to try to beat the post-game traffic.
While the second half slowly encapsulated the entirety of the 2025-26 campaign, Butler became a shell of itself. Chucking threes to make up nearly half of its second-half field goal attempts, and showing clear signs of disinterest as the Creighton lead continued to grow.
“Our minds weren’t where they needed ot be tonight in order to play as effectively as we needed to play against [Creighton],” Matta said. “I tried everything I could in the timeouts that we had. I’ll take the blame, but dammit, these guys [have] got to play. They got to have the wherewithal to fight and defend … This is the first game I’ve been disappointed in our performance.”
Riding a two-game losing streak, the Dawgs will be traveling to DePaul on March 7 to try to end the season on a high note before the Big East Tournament.
