Butler perpetrated a 20-point blowout against Cleveland State on Friday for the entire game. Butler made the first point, scored by Senior Matt Howard, and they stayed strong throughout the game. The first quarter looked bad for Cleveland State as Butler scored most of the points. By halftime, Butler was leading 42-23. Sophomore, Andrew Smith, made his first appearance against Cleveland State in his college basketball career and made the most of it. This win helped boost the Bulldogs into a four-way tie for second place in the Horizon League.
“(Cleveland State’s) bigs helped off a lot and our guards did a really good job of penetrating, and they got me the ball a lot,” said Smith, who led the Bulldogs in scoring for the first time in his young career. “I was able to get some offensive rebounds and make some shots.” After coming from a loss earlier in the week to Milwaukee, Butler blew a little time jumping in the number one team in the conference. The bulldogs managed to blow off 6 points to make an eight-point lead during the beginning of the game.
Butler’s starting guard, Zach Hahn, was sidelined with the flu at the time of the game, but that didn’t stop Butler to win. “I thought we did a really nice job of defending as a team and attacking as a team,” said Butler head coach Brad Stevens. “You have to handle their initial wave in order to attack them appropriately, and I thought our guards did a great job of that and our bigs did a great job of finishing.” In the final 20 minutes Butler held Cleveland State to a point where Cleveland State was never closer than 17 points away from Butler. Although Cleveland State played terribly and lost really badly, they knew it would be a hard team to win against.
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