Owen Berk
Student Sports Media
On Monday, March 5, the women’s basketball team traveled to Hartman Arena in Park City for their second round match-up in the Region VI playoff tournament. A sea of purple flooded the arena 30 minutes before tip-off, a crowd that would have had the Power Plant at maximum capacity easily.
Parents, students, coaches and athletes from other sports were all in attendance, representing their Grizzly pride for Coach Mike Helmer and his athletes.
Going into the game, Butler was riding a three-game winning streak, including their 79-38 dismantling of the Allen County Red Devils in the first round. Cowley was riding a four-game winning streak of their own, beating Neosho 71-53 in the first round.
It was all Cowley to start the game. The Tigers went to the second quarter holding a 16-9 lead. A main reason for the Grizzlies struggling early would have to be their dismal 16.7 shooting percentage from the field in the first quarter.
Helmer made some good adjustments on offense, and the Grizzlies were able to pick the shooting percent up to 37.5 in the second. Still not great, but it was enough to keep Butler close, as they could not find an answer for 6 foot 2 inch Cowley freshman Brenda Silva. She carved the Grizzlies up inside during the first half, with 14 points and 6 rebounds at the break.
“You hold (Kaitlyn) Potter to zero threes all night, but she hit a crucial one late, but the biggest thing was we couldn’t stop (number) 55, (Silva) killed us,” Helmer said.
An injured sophomore Morgan Littlewood’s size inside was dearly missed by the Grizzlies all night. There is no way of telling whether Littlewood would have been able to slow the post attack the Tigers were running, but she would have been a tremendous rebounding help and at 6 foot 5 inch her presence in the middle when Helmer switches to a 2-3 zone would’ve been a huge help.
“We literally had a meeting this morning saying if Morgan was here we win,” Helmer said. “In the two games against them she had 22 rebounds, that’s 11 a game, and she also changes the dynamics of their two post players as well.”
At half, Butler trailed 30-24, a manageable six point deficit for the Grizzlies to handle in the third quarter. That is when the roof on Hartman Arena almost blew off.
Three minutes into the third, Butler caught fire, starting with back-to-back threes from freshman Kyla Callins. Following those two threes, Callins also drew a charge on defense, and the crowd noise became deafening.
“Thank you for all the support all season and especially last night, with that many people there,” Helmer said. “Softball team was there, volleyball team was there (and) the men’s basketball team was there. We had a great crowd last night, and I wanted to win for our girls more than anything but for those fans, too.”
Just like that in three possessions, Callins seemed to light a fire under every Grizzly in the building, and Butler was just down two. Running that 2-3 on defense and finding their shot in the third quarter helped the Grizzlies outscore the Tigers 26-12 to take a 50-42 lead going into the final 10 minutes of regulation.
That is when Cowley figured how to break the zone. The Tigers slowly clawed their way back into the game, taking a two-point lead with just a minute and a half left in regulation. The next minute would be a roller coaster for every Butler fan in the house. Cowley hit two free throws to go up four, but freshman Taylor Birch hit a contested three with a defender draped all over her, cutting the lead to one.
The Tigers were able to hit more clutch free throws down the stretch to close the game. The Grizzlies fell 69-67 to the Tigers. It was a depressing end to the season for Butler, but Helmer said he could not be more proud of his season from his team.
