Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- RJ Mahurin rung up a career-high 22 points but it wasn't enough for the Sycamores as they fell 75-54 to Butler in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,000 fans inside historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.
The Sycamores had a two-game winning streak snapped and fell to 16-12 while Butler won for the fourth consecutive game to improve to 17-12.
Mahurin earned the start for the Sycamores in place of senior Carl Richard who was sidelined with the flu. He responded by hitting each of his first four 3-pointers in the game, including a four-point play as he topped the previous best showing of his career (14 pts at No. 25 Vanderbilt) and scored 22 points against the Bulldogs.
Butler hit 27-of-60 field goal attempts (45 percent) and connected on eight 3-pointers. The Sycamores were limited to 33.3 percent shooting (17-of-51) and were out-rebounded by a 43-28 margin. Butler owned an 11-1 advantage in second chance points.
Butler's Roosevelt Jones tallied the first basket of the game just 14 seconds in, but Jake Odum found Dwayne Lathan for their signature alley-oop to answer as the game was tied at 2 nearly a minute into the first half. The Bulldogs scored the game's next five points to take a 7-2 lead, but Walker hit a jumper in the paint with 16:25 remaining to stem the tide and cut the BU advantage down to 7-4.
The Bulldogs would run its lead out to 23-8 with just over 10 minutes left in the opening stanza, but the Sycamores were able to the cut Butler lead down to as few as four points at 30-26 with 3:08 remaining as ISU scored 18 of the game's next 25 points. Leading the charge during the stretch was sophomore RJ Mahurin, who hit a trio of 3-pointers and scored 13 points in the first half. His trey with 3:08 on the clock, capped a strong stretch for ISU in which they were able to cut Butler's once 15-point lead down to just four.
Over the final 3:08 of the first half, the Sycamores would get just one Dwayne Lathan free throw while Butler tallied seven points and went into the half with a 37-27 cushion. Indiana State was a perfect 4-of-4 from 3-point range in the first half, just two games removed from its NCAA record 12-of-12 3-point shooting performance for the game against Southern Illinois on February 11.
The Sycamores would hit their first trey of the second half as well as a rare four-point play by Mahurin with 14:29 left in the second half to cut the Butler lead down to 49-36. Butler's Jackson Aldrige converted a pair of free throws with 8:17 remaining to stake itself to a 65-42 lead -- its biggest of the game.
Indiana State would score eight of the game's next nine points as they eventually cut the Butler lead down to 66-50 with just over five minutes remaining as Mahurin went over 20 points in a game for the first time in his career with a pair of free throws. Eitel took a nice feed from Dwayne Lathan as the clock ticked under four minutes to go to make it 66-52, but Butler answered with a 3-pointer to stretch the cushion back out to 69-52.
Butler was led in scoring by Andrew Smith with 12 points. Five Butler players reached double figures scoring in the contest.
Indiana State returns to action on Wednesday, February 22 when they travel to Missouri State. Tip-off is set for 8:05 p.m. (ET).
