Broncbusters knock off No. 20 Butler

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Antwain Scales has accomplished plenty during a coaching career destined for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. He is the only head man in state history to lead a program to four straight 6A championships, and he turned around a Colby program that was considered the doormats of the Jayhawk Conference. But up until Wednesday, he had never beaten Butler.

Scratch that off the bucket list.

Kealani Neves poured in 14 points, Justis Odom nearly notched a double-double with nine points and nine boards, and Garden City knocked off the 20^th-ranked Grizzlies, 47-39 at Conestoga Arena. The Broncbusters improved to 11-4 overall and 6-4 in league play.

"I'm happy to get the win, but we have to play better than that," Scales said afterwards. "Butler is a very good team, and they are well coached, so, we just have to do a better job."

The Broncbusters won this game with a tenacious defense, one that held Butler without a field goal for the first 13:38 of the game. In fact, it wasn't until Jaila Harding hit a contested 12-footer with 6:22 to go in the second that Butler even sniffed the basket. That same defensive pressure forced the Grizzlies into 10 first-quarter turnovers.

"I'm proud of these young ladies for getting the win," Scales added. "It was frustrating never beating Butler, even when I was at Colby. But we finally got it done even though we have plenty that we need to work on."

Garden City, despite shooting only 39 percent from the floor and 1-of-10 from downtown, never trailed. They jumped out to an 8-0 lead, was up 10-4 after one, and pushed it to as many as 11 after Keyhana Turner hit a free throw to make it 19-8 with 2:53 left in the half. They led by 10 at the break.

"Key (Keyhana) was big for us on defense tonight," Scales explained. "She is still figuring things out, and we are trying to give her more opportunities on the other end."

Butler put a little scare into the Broncbusters in the third. Emily Mandamin drained back-to-back 3-pointers to slice Garden City's 10-point lead down to four. But Neves responded with a huge triple from right wing, Alexis Smith, who missed the Cloud County game because of injury, knocked down a midrange jumper, and the Broncbusters had a 32-24 cushion going to the fourth.

"We just have to put ourselves in better situations," Scales said.

The Grizzlies never got any closer than five points the rest of the way. Neves finished a two-handed layup in traffic, Britney Mapang sank a 16-foot set shot from the left side of the floor, Justis Odom slithered inside for two, and Garden City was up, 47-37 with 1:31 remaining.

Alexis Smith chipped in six points, five rebounds, and two assists for Garden City, which beat the Grizzlies for the first time since Jan. 20, 2020. Turner added five points and six boards off the bench.

Harding tallied 14 points for Butler, which lost for the third time in their last five games after starting the season 10-0.

Next up: Garden City at Hutchinson, Saturday, Jan. 15-5:30 pm