Butler rolls to big road win at Garden City to open conference play

GARDEN CITY, Kan. – The Butler men rolled to a big road win to open Jayhawk West Conference action on Saturday, handling Garden City by a 77-56 score in the Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex.

The Grizzlies got off to a quick start when center Sean Goodwin drew a charge on the defensive end of the floor and moments later scored on a layup to give Butler a 2-0 lead.

The Grizzlies would not look back, jumping to a quick 22-13 lead midway through the half and pushing the lead to as many as 10 points later in the period. A late Garden City surge would cut Butler's lead to just eight points at the break after former Grizzly Cody Bernbeck hit a buzzer beater at the end of the half to make the score 35-27.

Butler quickly expanded its lead in the second half, going on a 21-6 run to go ahead 56-33 with 10 minutes to play. Garden City would get as close as 15 points down the stretch before the Grizzlies finished off the 21-point win. The exclamation point was a thunderous dunk by Trent Richardson with a minute to play.

Eric Watson led the way for the Grizzlies with 20 points, including making 4-of-5 3-pointers. Sean Osler scored 17 points, Trent Richardson had 12 and Bakari Triggs scored 10.

Butler made 10 of 21 3-pointers in the game and was 27-55 overall for 49 percent shooting, while Garden City made just 16 of 55 shots for 29 percent.

The Grizzlies are 13-2 on the season and 1-0 in Jayhawk West Conference play for the first time since 2009. Garden City is now 8-7 overall and 0-1 in conference. Butler returns to action on Wednesday when it plays its first conference home game against No. 2 Hutchinson. Game time is 7:30 p.m. in the Power Plant.