Shorthanded Garden City loses to Butler at home

By Mike Pilosof

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-So far this season, the flu bug is undefeated.

On Monday morning, the virus hit two more players: Naj Ashley Emory and Derrick Bryant. Those guys joined the likes of Marquez Terry and Kaleb Favors in quarantine, leaving Patrick Nee with just eight players for his primetime showdown with Butler.

And the lack of depth finally caught up to the Broncbusters.  

Marque English and Kamron Brice combined to score 32 points, Lamar-University transfer Grehlon Easter chipped in 15, and the Grizzlies edged depleted Garden City 78-73 at Conestoga Arena. For Butler, it was a major bounce-back performance 48 hours after surrendering 18 3's to Independence in a 40-point loss.  

"We just didn't play with enough energy," Head Coach Patrick Nee said. "It looked like early on, that we knew we only had eight guys suited up. So guys were kind of pacing themselves a little bit."

It also didn't help that Butler couldn't miss in the first half.

The Grizzlies connected on 7-of-13 triples over the first 20 minutes. In fact, Easter had plenty of jaws dropping when he hit three straight long balls to put Butler up 14-6 six minutes into the contest. Then Marque English buried a pair of 3s, sophomore returner Kamron Brice connected from deep, and Butler was up 32-21 at the intermission. The Grizzlies closed the opening stanza on a 12-4 run, limiting the Broncbusters to one field goal (a Steven Samuels dunk) over the final 6:50. Garden City shot just 9-of-27 (33 percent) from the floor in the first half.

"It was typical us where there's like a five or six-minute stretch where we just go brain dead," Nee said. "Next thing you know, the lead goes from eight to 15 in like two seconds."

Even a 15-minute break didn't cool off Kyle Fisher's squad.

The longtime Coffeyville assistant, who's now in his first season leading the Grizzlies, watched English get loose for another trey one minute into the second half, giving Butler their largest lead of the night, 42-23.

"They were getting off wide-open layups and wide-open 3's," Nee explained. "That just can't happen."

That's when Garden City changed course, scrapping their first-half defensive strategy, which consisted of a mix of man-to-man and zone, and implemented a three-quarters-court press that had Butler scrambling. The end result: Garden City got back in the game. Daishaun Woods, Michael Frazier, and Tahlik Chavez hit three straight shots, Chavez then nailed an off-balance 3 from the right wing as the shot clock expired, and Frazier swished one from 28 feet, bringing the Broncbusters to within 10, 50-40 with 13:30 to play.

"We played with nothing to lose in the second half," Nee said. "When you get down by that much, we really had no choice. But we showed that maybe, if we have all of our guys, we can play like that for the whole game."

Maybe not "Press Virginia," the defense deployed by legendary Head Coach Bob Huggins at West Virignia, but Nee's change in philosophy forced nine second-half turnovers. And when Frazier shook free for another triple, Garden City was within nine, 60-51 with 8:00 to go. Then, the big man completed a three-point play, Traylynn Spencer hit two free throws, and Osborne tipped in Spencer's missed midrange jumper, slicing the deficit to five, 66-61 with 4:04 to play.

"As usual, we just ran out of gas," Nee said." We couldn't finish once we got close."

At that point, Butler was sweating bullets, and that anxiety level went through the roof once Chavez grabbed Easter's missed layup and raced the other way. Thinking he was home free, the freshman went up for a two-handed layup, only to have English swat the ball away. The freshman from Pittsburg, KS cleared it to Easter, who then located Javaunte Hawkins in the left corner for a backbreaking 3 to put Butler up eight.

"That was an example of a team that just wanted it more and was playing really hard," Nee said. "Butler is a really good team."

The Broncbusters closed the gap to five, four times in the final minutes but could never break through as Garden City lost for the eighth time in their last nine games.

Butler finished 11-of-24 (46 percent) from downtown, marking the eighth time this year an opponent has hit 10 or more 3s against Garden City. Hawkins tallied 11 points, four assists and three steals, and Shawn Hopkins added 10 points in 25 minutes.

Garden City closed the game by hitting 4-of-5 3s, this after missing their first 14 shots from deep. Chavez scored 21 points but was just 7-of-16 shooting, Frazier also had 21 in 31 minutes, and Samuels notched his second double-figure game of the season with 10 points off the bench.

Next up: Garden City at Pratt-Wednesday, Jan. 22-7:30 p.m. on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app