Butler women avenge earlier loss to Garden with 76-46 win

The Butler women avenged an earlier loss to Garden City in a big way, handling the Broncbusters 76-46 on Wednesday at the Power Plant.

Butler suffered a 70-69 loss at Garden City in the conference opener on Nov. 12. This contest was never that close. Butler jumped out to a 7-0 lead, holding Garden City scoreless for nearly five minutes to start the game.

After Garden City scored four straight, Butler closed the quarter on an 8-0 run to lead 15-4. Butler then got pushed the lead to 20 following three consecutive 3-pointers – two from Dakota Vann and the third from Kendriana Washington, which made it a 29-9 game with 5:37 left in the first half.

Butler would lead by as many as 23 points in the first half and was up 38-18 at halftime.

In the second half, Garden City would cut Butler's lead to 16 at 43-27 before Butler pushed the lead back to 20 by the end of the third quarter at 51-31.

Butler eventually pushed the lead to 30 after Alecia Gulledge nailed a 3-pointer with 3:18 remaining that made it a 74-44 contest.

Gulledge led Butler with 20 points in 21 minutes off the bench. She was 4-6 from 3-point range and 4-4 at the free throw line. She also had five rebounds. Kyeria Hannah had 11 points and Dakota Vann had 10 for Butler. Kendriana Washington had nine points and led Butler with eight rebounds.

Butler shot 44 percent from the floor (24-55) and was a blistering 59 percent from 3-point range (13-22). It is a season-high from the perimeter for Butler. The previous best this season was six makes from 3-point range against Pratt and Coffeyville. Butler has gone 30-63 from 3-point range (48 percent) since the start of January.

Garden City shot just 33 percent (14-43) and made just one of its 15 attempts from 3-point range, for seven percent shooting from the arc.

Butler improves to 12-4 on the season and is 9-4 in Jayhawk Conference games, sitting in a tie for fourth place halfway through the 26-game conference schedule. The Grizzlies will have another chance to avenge an earlier loss when they travel to Seward County on Saturday. The fourth-ranked Saints are 17-1 after suffering their first loss of the season at No. 5 Hutchinson on Wednesday, 74-47.