On Thursday Night (1/23) your 6th seeded Butler Lady Bears were back in action in the Stockton Tournament. In this round, the Bears faced off against the #7 seed Lamar Lady Tigers. 

Lamar won the tip, and drew first blood, scoring on the opening possession. A scoop and score from Tourtillot answered back for the Lady Bears and sparked an 8-0 run in favor of Butler.  After a much needed time-out called by Lamar, Heckadon drove to the basket and earned herself a trip to the charity stripe where she went 1 of 2 to end the Butler run. With 30 seconds left in the opening period, Wiss knocked down a triple to pull the Tigers within 7, but with time expiring, Georgia McCoun would answer back with a deep ball of her own, for the Bears. 

To open the second quarter, Taylor Hudson rolled in a layup for the Bears off an assist from Gabby Carmichael which led to a 6-1 run in favor of Butler. For much of the period the Tigers and Bears would trade blows, until Clover would knock down a deep ball to spark a 4-2 Bears run to close out the half. The Butler Bears took a 29-16 lead into the locker room. 

In the second half, Lamar would again strike first as Heckadon drilled home a triple, after which both teams would swap blows for the remainder of the quarter. By the start of the 4th, the Tigers drew back within 10, with a 38-28 score at the end of 3. 

In the 4th, the Lady Tigers would again score first, as McCulloch went 1-2 from the line to pull Lamar within 9 with 7 minutes remaining in regulation. To open the quarter the Tigers would outscore the Bears 6-2 to close the gap with a score of 40-34, and force Butler to burn a time out. Out of the Bears time-out, Heckadon drilled another 3 ball to stretch the Lamar run to 9-2 and bring the tigers within 3. Hackadon would then go the line where she knocked down a pair to bring the Tigers within one with a score of 40-39 with 4 and a half minutes to play. McCulloch then hit an inside basket to give the Tigers their first lead of the night with under 3 minutes to play. Carmichael answered for the Bears to go back up 44-43. At the 2 minute mark, Cook made a pair of free throws to spark a 9-5 run to close out the game and give the Bears a 53-48 victory. 

The Bears were led by Carmichael with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 assists. Dubray ended her night with 13 points and 7 rebounds. McCoun and Cook both put up 6 points as well. 

The Bears will move on to play Stockton on Saturday. GO BEARS!  

Photos by Erin Dubray (be sure and check back as more photos will be added later)