Owen Berk
Student Sports Media
The Butler Grizzly men’s basketball season continued in Sedalia, Missouri Friday, Nov. 15 and Saturday Nov. 16 to compete in the State Fair Classic. The team left at 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 15, got off the bus and immediately played Moberly Area Community College on the campus of State Fair Community College.
The Grizzlies battled for 40 minutes and came out on top 86-80. A back and forth game throughout, the Grizzlies clawed their way to a win over the Greyhounds thanks to their great shooting from beyond the 3-point line. As a team, they shot 15/29, a blazing 52 percent from outside.
Sophomore point guard Juwan White led all scorers with 22 points on a perfect 5/5 from 3-point range. Butler was outrebounded 40-28 in the game, a point of emphasis for Coach Kyle Fisher for the next 24 hours.
In their second game of the weekend, Butler played against the State Fair Community College Roadrunners, the host of the classic. Butler corrected their rebounding problem, only being outrebounded 45-40. While fixing the glaring issue from game one, the Grizzlies lost their shooting touch against the Roadrunners. They shot 29 percent from the field and just 24 percent from behind the 3-pt line.
Splitting the game on a road trip is not always a bad thing. Experiencing a win and a loss on the road early in the season will help make sure the Grizzlies are battle tested for a tough conference schedule. Also, coach Fisher proved he can make something an emphasis in practice and see immediate results in the next game.
That being one of the hardest things about this non-conference schedule, practice time.
With a schedule that can make you play up to four times a week, not including travel, it can be hard to have the time for a practice. Coach Mike Helmer of the Grizzlies Women’s basketball team has had the same struggle, having a 9 day stretch of no practices earlier on in this season.
After splitting the road trip,the Grizzlies, match their start from a year ago at 5-2. If the Grizzlies can sync their hot shooting up with a good rebounding night, they will be near unstoppable.
