BUTLER 77, NORTHERN IOWA 65

NCAA BB FINAL 1ST 2ND TOTAL --- --- ----- NORTHERN IOWA 33 32 65 BUTLER 46 31 77 FINAL
HIGH SCORERS: NORTHERN IOWA - CHRIS FOSTER 18, ROBBIE SIEVERDING 17, DAVID GRUBER 17 BUTLER - BRANDON MILLER 16, THOMAS JACKSON 14, SCOTT ROBISCH 13
HIGH REBOUND: NORTHERN IOWA - DAVID GRUBER 9, TWO PLAYERS WITH 4 BUTLER - JOEL CORNETTE 9, TWO PLAYERS WITH 5
HIGH ASSISTS: NORTHERN IOWA - AARON MIDDENDORF 5, ANDY WOODLEY 3 BUTLER - JOEL CORNETTE 4, THOMAS JACKSON 4
ATT: 5,273

Box Score
NORTHERN IOWA (65) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Middendorf 29 3-4 0-1 0-4 5 5 6 Gruber 38 6-13 5-7 2-9 0 2 17 Woodley 19 0-2 0-0 0-1 3 1 0 Smith 29 2-6 0-0 2-3 1 5 5 Sieverding 38 6-12 3-4 0-4 2 2 17 Bennett 8 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0 Austin 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Morariu 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Wright 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Foster 25 7-10 0-0 1-1 2 1 18 Anderson 11 1-1 0-1 0-2 1 2 2 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 200 25-48 8-13 5-25 15 18 65 _______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.521, FT-.615. 3-Point Goals: 7-15, .467 (Woodley 0-1, Smith 1-5, Sieverding 2-3, Foster 4-6). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: None. Turnovers: 19 (Gruber 4, Middendorf 4, Sieverding 3, Smith 3, Woodley 3, Foster, Morariu). Steals: 5 (Smith 2, Foster, Middendorf, Sieverding).
BUTLER (77) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Cornette 34 3-7 3-5 4-9 4 3 9 Hainje 34 1-5 8-10 2-5 2 2 10 Robisch 29 6-9 0-0 2-5 0 4 13 Miller 32 5-10 3-4 1-4 1 3 16 Jackson 35 5-11 2-2 0-2 4 0 14 Archey 15 2-4 0-0 0-1 1 0 4 Monserez 16 3-4 0-0 0-2 0 2 8 Walls 4 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3 Curry 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 200 26-51 16-21 9-29 12 14 77 _______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.510, FT-.762. 3-Point Goals: 9-18, .500 (Hainje 0-2, Robisch 1-1, Miller 3-7, Jackson 2-3, Archey 0-1, Monserez 2-3, Walls 1-1). Team rebounds: None. Blocked shots: 5 (Cornette 2, Hainje 2, Robisch). Turnovers: 14 (Hainje 5, Miller 3, Cornette 2, Jackson 2, Robisch). Steals: 9 (Hainje 5, Cornette 2, Jackson, Miller). __________________________________ Northern Iowa 33 32 - 65 Butler 46 31 - 77 __________________________________ Technical fouls: None. A: 5,273. Officials: Lamont Simpson, Bert Smith, Bill Kaminski.

DAVE'S POSTGAME ANALYSIS
The Butler Bulldogs faced their toughest challenge at home this season, and they were able to hold off Northern Iowa for a 77-65 victory. Butler jumped out to an early 14-4 lead, but the visiting Panthers scored five straight points to cut the deficit to five. The Bulldogs pushed the lead out to 14 at 25-11 and again at 27-13, then the Panthers went on an 14-4 run to cut it to four. The Bulldogs then went on one of two runs that UNI head coach Greg McDermott credited with making the difference, pushing the lead to 13 at halftime, 46-33. The second run came at the start of the second half, when Butler pushed the lead out to as much as 22 points at 62-40. Then Panther guard Chris Foster came off the bench and put on a show. He hit back-to-back 3-pointers, a back-door layup, another 3-pointer, and another back-door layup as part of UNI's final run that cut Butler's lead to nine at 72-63. But that was a close as the Panthers would get, as the Bulldogs hit five free throws in the last two minutes to seal the win.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Rylan Hainje. It's a tough call for this game, because all five starters had a hand in the win. Rylan struggled from the field (1-of-5), but hit 8-of-10 free throws, pulled down 5 rebounds, and had 5 steals and a pair of blocks. Often last year when Rylan would struggle from the field, he would seem to disappear, but in this game he stepped up the other aspects of his game and helped the Bulldogs to the win.
Brandon Miller led the Bulldogs with 16 points, and pulled down 4 rebounds. Thomas Jackson had 14 points and 4 assists. Scott Robisch finished with 13 points on 6-for-9 from the field, and pulled down 5 rebounds. McDermott stated after the game that one of their goals going in was to force Scott to beat them from outside because they didn't have the bodies to handle an inside attack, and he credited Robo with hitting several key jumpers. Joel Cornette added 9 points, 9 rebounds and a pair of blocks. Mike Monserez scored 8 points off the bench, Darnell Archey added 4 points, and Rob Walls nailed a trey for 3 points. UNI was led by Foster's game-high 18 points, and 17 points apiece from Robbie Sieverding and David Gruber.
I can't say enough about how impressed I was with Northern Iowa. They work every bit as hard as Butler does at both ends of the floor, and really challenged the Bulldogs at home. Their win over Iowa was no fluke. I was particularly impressed by Gruber, who played well above his 6'6" height. He works very hard in the paint for points and rebounds. Whoever voted them to finish last in the MVC obviously didn't know what they were talking about, because the Panthers are by far the best of the three MVC teams we faced and should certainly challenge for one of the top spots in their conference. Butler head coach Todd Lickliter noted that the Panthers were a very smart basketball team and were very poised. He stated that one of their goals was to limit their free throw opportunities, since UNI was averaging over 24 attempts a game from the charity stripe coming in. The Bulldogs were successful in doing so, holding the Panthers to just 13 free throws while attempting 21 themselves. Butler turned the ball over a season-high 14 times, but forced 19 Panther turnovers. They outrebounded UNI 29-27.

Butler gets little time to savor this win, as they will board a plane tomorrow for Baltimore, then take a bus to Emmitsburg for Monday's game at Mount St. Mary's. Game time is Monday, December 17, at 7:30 p.m. EST. I will be attending the Purdue/UIC game that night and won't be able to listen to the game. But I look forward to getting a first-hand account of the game from "nycdawg", who will be making the trip down to Maryland for the game. Look for his comments on the game later next week. And as always, feel free to send me your comments on that game (or any game for that matter) using the form provided.

User comments

WarDog from Indianapolis, IN:

Analysis was correct in that NI provided a strong challenge 
and are a much better team than their record last year or 
prognosticators would have you think.  I don't mind tough games, in fact, I'd rather 
have them than a blowout against a weak opponent, although it's 
valuable to note that there was tremendous amoung of hand checking and bumping 
by NI that was not called today.  I haven't seen a guard this year who 
could handle TJ, and most defenders have tried to muscle up on him 
instead of playing straight up.  He can typically blow by these guys and 
penetrate for a shot in the lane or a dish, but a foul is a foul.  I am 
always impressed at how BU players are well disciplined in that we 
present a very tough defensive challenge without fouling.  For some reason 
we tend to be on the receiving end of a lot of the physical play, and we 
should be leading a pararde to the foul line.  Watch us run the weave 
on top, and see how many fouls are not called.  Most teams don't have the
discipline to defend that set and resort to pushing through 
the screen to follow their man, but it is rarely whistled.  I watched 
NI beat a very young Bradley team and was certain that they would have 
trouble with our front line, inside or out.  They are scrappy, but at 
least two more of them should have been DQ'ed for the hand checking 
alone.  I hate to keep ranting about the officiating, but how many more 
times are we going to see a drive to the basket, heavy contact, no whistle 
by the basleine ref and then a zebra running in from half court waving 
for a foul?  I have always taken pride in the level of sportsmanship 
exhibited by our players and coaches, but I was almost hoping that Lick 
would ditch his jacket and get tossed today.  If the refs hadn't found 
their whistles in the last couple of minutes and NI had continued 
bombing away it might have gotten a lot closer than we would have liked.  On 
to Mt. St. Maryland, and hopefully a lot of minutes for Walls (the one handed
wonder), Sweet Lou, Mike Moore and D. Lightfoot Jr.  No 
matter what the result, I hope we continue to play with humility and 
respect for our opponent, the real keys to success.  WarDogs.

Back to the Butler Basketball Page

DISCLAIMER: This page is not endorsed by, run by, or otherwise affiliated with Butler University. It is maintained by yours truly, an alumnus, with the sole intent of being the best place for Butler Men's Hoops info on the Internet.

[counter]

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page