Garden City upsets No. 21 Butler

By Mike Pilosof

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-More than two decades ago, Mike "Scoop" Harding was a guard on the Butler men's basketball team. So you can't fault him for having a little extra juice heading into Monday night's showdown.

Consider this: Garden City got blown out by 65 against Seward seven days ago; were down by 10 in the second half to a Northwest Tech team that won only two games last season, and have endured an early-season coaching change, and of all things, the flu, and still, somehow, despite getting out rebounded by 35 on Monday night, found a way to knock off the 21^st-ranked Grizzlies. Go figure, right?

Jaleah Bellany finished with 23 points and knocked down a career-high seven 3's, Alyssa Boyce chipped in 19 points, and Garden City snapped Butler's six-game winning streak with an 80-78 victory at Conestoga Arena. And what was the deciding factor: defense. The Broncbusters turned 28 Grizzly turnovers into 29 points.

"We took this one kind of personal," Harding said. "We thought they kind of disrespected us during pregame warmups, so we used that as fuel."

And it showed early on, as the Broncbusters built an 11-4 edge once Bellany canned her second triple three minutes into the game. But Garden City managed just one point the rest of the period, Butler answered with a 14-1 run, and the Grizzlies were up 12-8 going to the second.

"Our game plan was to play good, solid defense and see what happens," Harding added. "We did that tonight."

Butler extended their lead to seven once Jelesa Gross dropped in a layup to make it 24-17 with 6:52 remaining in the first half. But Garden City never backed down. Bellany swished two free throws before knocking two more triples, Corina Suarez-Tudela also hit from deep, and the Broncbusters were within one, 32-31 at the break.

"We got up in their face most of the game," Harding said. "Our plan was as soon as they picked the ball up to get in their face. I call that guard your yard, and they did it well tonight."

In the second half, Garden City was the aggressor. Bellany put them in front with a 3, 16 seconds into the third; Dashanae Pajeaud knocked down a midrange jumper, and Dasja Ross buried a trey, fueling an 11-2 surge that put the home team up 39-34. Boyce added a triple; then knocked down two free throws, and Ariyanna Hall, who missed Saturday's game at Northwest Tech with flu-like symptoms, cashed in a deep ball, giving Garden City a 54-42 edge with 2:44 to go in the period.

"I've been preaching to move the ball four or five times," Harding said. "We have shooters, and when we shoot like we did tonight, I don't think there are a lot of teams that can hang with us."

Butler got right back in the game, using a 13-5 run to close the third, cutting a 12-point deficit down to four after Tamara Nard's layup made it 59-55. But Garden City answered the bell again, and Bellany drained a pair of 3-pointers to begin the fourth, stretching the lead back to 10.

"When Jaleah is shooting like that, look out," Harding said with a chuckle. "When I told the girls to pass it four or five times, there's always the one exception when she's looking like that."

The Grizzlies made one more push to get back in the game. Trailing by six with less than 20 seconds to go, Camille Downs drained a three to pull Butler with three, 72-69. What ensued after that was the wildest sequence of the night. Following a Grizzlies' timeout, Deborah Ford turned the ball over in the backcourt, giving the road team a chance to tie. In fact, two separate times during that possession, Garden City had a chance to clear but failed. In the end, the mistakes didn't hurt them as Miranda Givens missed a game-tying triple from the right corner. Hall hit one free throw on the other end, and the game was over.

Bellany finished 7-of-19 from deep. It was her seventh 20-point scoring game this season. Hall scored 11 points in 17 minutes off the bench, and Ross added nine and dished out six assists.

Nard paced the Grizzlies with 25 points and eight rebounds before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Gross had 15, and Maddy Willis-Rosa and RaVon Nero each tallied 11. This game also marked just the third time this year that Butler lost a game when leading at the half.

Next up: Garden City at Pratt-Wednesday, Jan. 22-5:15 p.m. pregame; 5:30 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app