Source: Michael Hickey / Getty
INDIANAPOLIS — Butler’s path to the NCAA Tournament through an at-large bid has gone from hanging on by a thread to that thread snapping and disintegrating as the Bulldogs’ only hope left for a spot in the dance appears to be winning the Big East tournament.
Butler welcomed Rick Pitino and his St. John’s Red Storm to Hinkle Fieldhouse on Wednesday for a game there lay a sliver of a chance Butler could pad their resume just a bit more, but a stellar second half by the Red Storm all but assured that would not happen as Butler fell 82-59.
The loss marks one of Butler’s widest margins of defeat this season and also marks Butler’s sixth loss in their last seven games.
“We’re really struggling to put halves together,” said head coach Thad Matta. ‘We let them take our minds tonight. Our guys did things tonight I’ve never seen them do in my life.”
Both teams traded the lead in the early portion of the first half until St. John’s got the separation they were looking for on a 12-2 run kicked off by a 3-pointer by Nahiem Alleyne, giving Pitino’s squad a 25-13 lead midway through the half.
That would be the margin Butler found themselves fighting the whole half as the Red Storm took a 39-33 lead into halftime.
The Bulldogs only had three turnovers for the half, an improvement from their last game against Seton Hall, but the Dawgs were getting pummeled on the glass and could get more precious rebounds.
Things went from bad to worse in the second half as the Bulldogs would commit 12 of their 15 turnovers on the night in the second half. Butler played much of the half in a defeated state of mind. The rebounds continued to mount for the Red Storm leading to them outscoring Butler on second-chance points 17-4 for the game.
St. John’s also turned Butler’s turnovers into 23 points as opposed to Butler’s four.
Posh Alexander was able to lead the Dawgs as best he could with 15 points, but in the end, the gas tank was empty as the Red Storm cruised to an 82-59 victory.
“They took off on us,” Matta said. They are obviously a good basketball team. Every time we made a mistake they made us pay for it. Then there comes an element of toughness. Our next game is in March. We made mistakes tonight like it was November.”
That next game is Butler’s final road game of the season against a down-and-out DePaul squad in Chicago.
With not enough games left in the regular season to counteract the effects of this losing streak for the Dawgs, they will now have to hope for a stellar performance in the Big East post-season tournament to get enough street cred to please the NCAA Selection Committee.
At this point, Butler is out of contention for a first-round bye to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. That means they will need to win six more games in a row, including their last two regular-season games, to get back in the good graces of the committee. A win in the conference championship game would assure them a spot.
For now, all Butler can do is give it everything they have left in the tank as Selection Sunday draws nearer and nearer.
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