The good news for the Butler Lady Grizzlies was they were able to end a two-game losing streak with a 68-51 victory over the Dodge City Lady Conquistadors in Jayhawk West action at the Power Plant.
The part that is troubling Butler coach Mike Helmer was the mindset of the Lady Grizzlies going into the game.
Butler turned the ball over 25 times in the victory and were outrebounded by the smaller Dodge City players, who only dressed out seven in the contest.
“I was pleased defensively, except for some mental breakdowns that we were prepared for,” Helmer said. “I just didn’t feel like we had any intensity. As a fan, we weren’t a team I would be excited to watch because we didn’t play with emotion.
“They played with a lot of emotion against Seward and we almost won the game; and we came out (tonight) thinking that it’s Dodge and that we should win. That’s not the right attitude to have; that’s disrespectful.”
Alysia Hart made nine of her 13 shots and scored 27 points to lead the Lady Grizzlies (10-13, 4-5 Jayhawk West), who scored 29 points off of turnovers in the win. Paige Franklin and Abby Fawcett scored eight apiece for Butler.
The Lady Grizzlies used a 17-2 run midway through the first half to build a 27-10 lead and led 33-21 at intermission. Butler opened the second half with a 17-5 run and led by as much as 28 after intermission in the win.
Yomaira Rosas scored 14 points to lead Dodge City (3-20, 1-9), while Kayla Jensen and Marcella Sedoc scored 11 apiece.
El Dorado, Kan. —
