The 95th Annual Archie Basketball Tournament kicked off this week! The Butler Bears drew the Drexel Lady Bobcats for round 1. The Lady Bears and Lady Bobcats meet back on November 25th for Butler’s first game of the season. In the earlier match-up, the Bobcats won 37-28. Drexel is putting together a nice season with a 10-7 record. 

In the opening quarter, the Bobcats went up early, 4-0 at the 4 minute mark, and forced the Bears to call a timeout. The Bears struggle mightily to find the bottom of the basket early on, as they went 0-14 from the floor to start. Out of the time-out, Kylee Dubray went to 1 of 2 from the line to finally put the Bears on the board with about 3 minutes left in the 1st. After an answer from Jones, Carmichael was able to hit a little runner, which led to an 8-0 run for the Bears to close out the quarter and give the Bears a 9-6 lead. 

In the 2nd, Jones hit a jumper out of the gate, and both teams traded baskets back and forth. Clover buried 2 back to back long balls. The Bears called a 2nd quarter time-out, after which Georgia McCoun would hit a triple to spark a 9-2 run. The Bears took a 10 point lead into the intermission with a score of 26-16. 

The Bears opened the half with possession, and Carmichael was left open to drill home a triple and stretch the Butler lead and start a 10-2 Butler run. Out of another Bears timeout, the Bobcats hit a handful of free throws, and a three by Richardson to begin to shrink the Butler lead. Taylor Hudson closed the quarter out with a made basket from range for the Bears. At the end of 3, the Bears were atop the Bobcats 39-24. 

Tourtillot, for Butler, was the first to score in the final quarter, as she hit a mid range shot. The Bobcasts did not go away, as they proceeded to rattle off a 8-0 run that would shrink the Butler lead to single digits (41-32) with just at 5 and a half minutes to play. In the middle of a Drexel run, the Bobcats called a surprising time-out. Out of the Drexel timeout, the momentuem swapped back over to the Bears who would close out the game with a 55-39 win. 

Every lady who logged minutes for the Bears recorded a basket in the contest. They were led by Kylee Dubray who had a double-double with 19 points and 11 boards. Carmichael had 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals. The Bears hit 6 threes, with McCoun, Clover, Carmichael, and Hudson all getting in on the deep party!

Izzy Richards led all scores with 23 on the night. 

The Bears will move on to take on Lone Jack, the one seed, on Wednesday at 5:30 in the AUX Gym. 

photo by Erin Dubray