Butler Starters Pummel Georgetown; Confidence Flows Ahead Of Villanova

Source: Greg Fiume / Getty

WASHINGTON — As he was building the foundation of Butler’s modern-day excellence in the sport of men’s college basketball, former coach Barry Collier imposed the five pillars of “The Butler Way”, one of which is “Unity.”

The Bulldogs showed tons of unity among their starting five, each of whom scored in double figures en route to an absolute shellacking of Georgetown in Washington D.C. Tuesday evening.

The 90-66 victory is Butler’s second in a row and a further boost in confidence ahead of another tough stretch of their Big East slate.

Georgetown hung tough in the game’s opening stanza, which had Butler having to match the Hoyas shot for shot. Trailing 23-20 midway through the first half, Pierre Brooks took on the form of the Twitter GIF of the “Human Torch” from The Fantastic Four catching fire.

Brooks engineered a 13-0 run all by himself which consisted of two three-pointers to give the Dawgs the separation they needed going into halftime with a 44-32 lead.

The uplift by Brooks turned into absolute devastation in the second half. As Brooks hit the 20-point mark, along with 11 rebounds, early on, he would end up sitting for a good chunk of the second half which opened things up for his fellow starters in DJ Davis (17 pts), Jaylen Thomas (11 pts), Jahmyl Telfort (17 pts), and Posh Alexander (10 pts).

Each of them, passing, rebounding, running, and dodging their way up and down the floor, helped fuel a 21-4 scoring swing over a seven-minute stretch late in the half.

With three minutes to play, a team who ended up shooting 57% from the field for the whole night, and an 83-55 lead, head coach Thad Matta pulled his starters and his regular contributors from his bench.

The likes of Augusto Cassia and Finley Bizjack kept it going as Butler cruised to the 90-66 victory.

With two wins in a row, the Bulldogs appear to have all the “unity” they need to enter what will be another tough stretch in the Big East as they will face four ranked opponents over their next six games, which will include a rematch with top-ranked UConn, whom the Dawgs stuck with but ultimately fell to back on January 5th.

Before that, Butler will have to get through Villanova at home this coming Saturday, where the Dawgs have a favorable record against the Wildcats. Though a steep mountain to climb over the next few weeks, it also provides the Bulldogs opportunity… opportunity for those proverbial “Quad-1 wins” you hear so much about.

It spells an opportunity for Butler to maybe have the resume to make a case for March Madness in less than two month’s time. As long as the Dawgs have the “Unity” they showed this evening, the ceiling for this young and still developing squad is limitless.