Women's Basketball Preview: Region VI Quarterfinals vs Garden City (March 7th)

Garden City at #RV Butler

Saturday, March 7th| 5:30 PM Tipoff

The Power Plant | El Dorado, Kansas

Watch Live: butlergrizzlies.com/watchlive

Live Stats: tinyurl.com/2s3f4r2c

Massey Ratings Score Prediction: (masseyratings.com): Score: Garden City 55, Butler 68.

Other Massey Ratings Insights: Chance to win %: Butler 87%, Garden City 13%, Betting line: Butler -13.5, Game O/U: 122.5 points

Notes compiled by Wyatt Ebersole

Series since 2011: Butler leads 13-9 

Meetings this season:

January 11th at Butler: Butler won 86-47 

February 25th at Garden City: Garden City won 68-65

Opening notes:

• The Butler Grizzlies will play host to the Garden City Broncbusters in the quarterfinals of the Region VI Playoffs on Tuesday night in the Power Plant at 5:30
• Masseyratings.com ranks Garden City as the 90th best team in the NJCAA and Butler as the 27th
• The Grizzly Women clinched a first-round bye in the Region VI Playoffs and are the #3 seed
• Garden City is the #11 seed and they upset #6 seed Seward in the Greenhouse on Saturday to advance
• Butler has won seven of their last ten and have split their last six games
• Garden City is 4-6 over their last ten games and have won three of their last five games
• Garden is 3-12 on the road this season, but they have won two of their last three road contests
• Last time against Garden City: The Grizzlies were stunned by the Broncbusters on the road at Garden City just two weeks ago on February 25th, 65-68
  • Garden City's Dayshawna Carter scored 26 points in the Broncbuster win
• Butler has the #2 scoring defense in the conference 
• Butler is the third best shooting team from the field in the conference at 40.7%
• Butler is 21-1 this year against unranked opponents, with their only loss to an unranked team being the loss to Garden City
• Butler is 13-2 at home this year, have won eight straight in the Power Plant, and are 149-22 at home since 2012
• Garden City has not won at Butler since the 2015-16 season
• Butler has eliminated Garden City from the playoffs in each of the last two seasons

Last action for the Grizzlies 

Wednesday, March 1st | Butler 89, Independence 55

• The Butler Women put up one of their best games of the season in a dominant win over the Independence Pirates
• The Grizzlies ran away with the game early as they held a 21-6 lead after the first quarter and held Independence to 0/15 shooting in the quarter
• Freddie Wallace led all Grizzlies with 17 points, followed closely by Randi Harding who had 13
• The Grizzlies had another unusually difficult night at the charity stripe shooting just 63% from the line (17/27) 

Scouting the Broncbusters

• The Garden City Women are led by third year head coach Antwain Scales
• Coach Scales earned his first postseason win on Saturday with the win over Seward
• Dayshawna Carter leads the Broncbusters in scoring this season averaging 19.5 points per game
  • In the last meeting against Butler, she scored 26 points as mentioned earlier
• The other top offensive threat for the Busters this season is Demi Black who averages 12.5 points per game
• Garden City is the third worst free throw shooting team in the conference at 65.8%
  • Garden leads the conference in both free throws made (497) and free throws attempted (755)

Series Notes (Since 2011)

• Butler leads the series 13-9 since 2011, and they have won five of the last seven matchups
• Garden City's last win over Butler in the playoffs was in the 2011-12 season when the Broncbusters won 73-57 over the Grizzlies in the Region VI Quarterfinals
• As mentioned, Garden City has not won at Butler since the 2015-16 season on December 2nd, 2015, 63-67
• Butler is 10-2 at home against Garden City since 2011
• In their last meeting in the Power Plant which came earlier this year, Butler crushed Garden City 86-47

A Grizzly Win would…

• Improve them to 24-6 overall 
• Be their ninth straight home win
• Move them to 14-2 at home this season
• Give the Grizzlies their third straight playoff win against Garden City
• Help the Grizzlies case to receive an at-large bid to the national tournament should they need one

A Grizzly L would…

• Likely end their season at 23-7
• Be their second straight year losing in the Region VI Quarterfinals
• Be their fourth loss in their last seven games
• Break their home winning streak at eight games

Looking ahead

A win will advance the Grizzlies to the Region VI Final Four for the third time in the last four seasons, while a loss will likely end their season.