Butler 68, Evansville 59: Alex Barlow and Kellen Dunham combined for31 points and six steals to lead the visiting Bulldogs to a comeback win overthe Purple Aces.
Barlow had acareer-high 16 points, eight rebounds and four steals while Dunham finishedwith 15 points as Butler (9-2) won its fourth in a row. Khyle Marshall added 12points and seven rebounds with Kameron Woods collecting a career-high 13 reboundsâ?? 10 on the defensive end â?? to go with two blocked shots and eight points.
Sophomore D.J.Balentine, the Missouri Valley Conference’s leading scorer, led Evansville (6-6)with 26 points, five assists and three steals. Blake Simmons added eight pointsand 6-10 sophomore Egidijus Mockevicius had a game-high 15 rebounds for thePurple Aces, who dropped their third straight.
Trailing 41-40midway through the second half, Butler opened the biggest lead of the game withan 8-0 run that featured 3-pointers from Barlow and Dunham, along with a pairof Barlow steals, to take a 48-41 advantage. The Bulldogs steadily stretchedtheir lead from there, outrebounding the Purple Aces, 49-31, including16-6 on the offensive glass.
Butler was limitedto shooting just over 35 percent from the floor in a tight first half where neitherteam ever led by more than four points. The Bulldogs hit only 3-of-14 3-pointattempts in the first 20 minutes, but Balentine hit a trey just before thebreak to give Evansville a 32-29 lead at the intermission.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Butler beat Evansville for the 13th time in16 games dating to 1996. … Balentine played the entire game, giving him 199minutes of court time out of 200 game minutes for Evansville over its last fivegames. … The game featured15 lead changes and 10 ties.
