Butler women blow out No. 11 Garden City, 73-46

The Butler women avenged an earlier triple-overtime loss in dominating fashion on Saturday night, rolling past No. 11 Garden City by a 73-46 score in the Power Plant.

Garden, which had beaten Butler 86-84 in triple overtime at home in January, was no match for the Grizzlies on this night. Butler raced to a 9-0 lead in the first two minutes. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Shayla Williams and Carly Bettencourt gave the Grizzlies a 22-8 lead with 9:01 left in the first half.

The lead went past 20 points when Bettencourt hit two more long-range shots, the second giving Butler a 31-9 lead with 7:16 left in the period. Eventually, the Grizzlies would take a 37-20 lead into the halftime locker room.

Butler continued to dominate early in the second half, starting the period on a 12-2 run. Later, another layup in transition by Chelsea Hodison gave Butler its biggest lead at 68-35 with 5:16 left in the game.

The final 27-point margin of victory is the second widest margin of victory for Butler in conference play and is the most lopsided loss of the season for the nationally-ranked Busters, who fall to 20-3 overall and 6-3 in conference play.

Butler improves to 18-5 overall and moves into a tie for third place in the Jayhawk West standings with Garden. Both teams are 6-3, sitting behind Hutchinson (9-0) and Cloud County (7-2).

Individually, Butler was led by Jamillah Bonner, who scored a game-high 21 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Samantha Satterlee scored 15 points while Carly Bettencourt and Tysia Manual scored 10 points apiece. Garden City was led by Tamara Jones' 19 points while Tahlia Pope had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Butler will be off Wednesday night before travelling to face another nationally-ranked team next Saturday when Butler will play No. 1 Hutchinson in the Sports Arena at 5:30 p.m.