Austin McNorton
Student Sports Media
On Wednesday, Dec. 31, the Butler Lady Grizzlies beat the Lady Red Devils from Allen County 72-43 in the Power Plant thanks to double figures in two statistical categories from the reigning Jayhawk Conference player of the week Erika Mattingly.
Once again in this game, we saw the toughness of Butler’s defense as they held Allen to the second lowest amount of points allowed this season in conference play by Butler. The only game with less was a 42-point game allowed against Pratt. The Lady Grizzlies got 41 points off of 34 forced turnovers in the contest.
“We didn’t have the same intensity as we did against Cowley and some of those teams, but we did what we needed to get the win,” Head Coach Mike Helmer said.
Offensively, it was a very balanced attack as 11 out of the 12 players on Butler’s roster all had points in the game. Leading in scoring was Erika Mattingly with 14 and her former high school teammate, Kyla Callins right behind her with 12. The Lady Grizzlies’ largest lead of the contest was 32 points before an eventual 29 point margin of victory.
Mattingly herself also did a lot more than score in this contest as she also had 10 steals, seven rebounds and four assists. Mattingly once again proved why she is a major threat everywhere on the court for opponents.
“She’s a beast,” Helmer said of Mattingly.
After the win against Allen County Butler sits at fifth in the conference with an overall 15-6 record as well as a 12-6 record in conference play.