Box Score I Box Score (.html) I Box Score (.pdf) I Photo Gallery I Video Highlights I Todd Howard Postgame

INDIANAPOLIS - Rotnei Clarke and Kellen Dunham led five Bulldogs in double-digits with 17 points each as host Butler rolled past IUPUI on Wednesday (Dec. 5) night, 87-55 at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
 
The hot shooting Bulldogs knocked down 56 percent from the field and 11-of-21 (52.4 percent) three-point attempts while limiting IUPUI (3-7) to just 43 percent.
 
Juniors Donovan Gibbs and Mitchell Patton paced the Jaguars with 10 each in the loss.
 
"Hats off to Butler. They looked like they were looking at a few things with their personnel and sometimes that's tricky to do," IUPUI head coach Todd Howard said. "They got off to a good start and I thought they freed up Clarke quite a bit. Our gameplan was to kind of throw the kitchen sink at them and we just didn't get a chance and we were on our heels. From there, we were underwater."

Butler (6-2) wasted little time in asserting itself in front of the home crowd of 5,533, imposing an early 16-0 run to take a commanding 20-2 lead at the 10:54 mark and was just getting started. Khyle Marshall did much of the damage, playing overtop of the Jaguars to score inside and control the glass. Gibbs stopped the scoreless drought with an easy layup off a nifty feed from Lyonell Gaines, but the host Bulldogs shifted the focus from the interior to beyond the three-point line with similar success.
 
Sophomore Erik Fromm, who had hit just two treys all year, swished back-to-back triples, followed by a hit from Clarke which made it 29-6. Clarke, a high scoring transfer from Arkansas, later connected for a four-point play to push the lead out to 35-8. Even 6-foot-11 center Andrew Smith got in on the high wire act, hitting his second triple of the season after John Hart had hit a tough, high-arcing trifecta at the other end.
 
All total, Butler led 52-21 at the break after shooting 60 percent from the floor and three-point range after hitting 9-of-15 from behind the arc.
 
IUPUI showed some spirit in the second half, getting early three-point plays from both Jordan Shanklin and Patton, but the outcome was well in hand as the Jaguars never got within 25 after intermission.

"I was very pleased with our second half, the way we battled the way we did," Howard said. "That's good momentum. We bounced back and that says a lot about our kids."

Gibbs hit 5-of-10 shots and grabbed a game-high six boards in the loss and Patton was an efficient 4-of-6 from the floor in just 19 minutes work. Gaines had a team-high four assists off the bench and Hart, the team's top scorer, was held to just seven points and five turnovers and had his streak of six straight double-digit scoring efforts stopped.

Clarke was 4-of-6 from three and pumped in 17 points in just 24 minutes while Dunham's 17 points came on 5-of-7 shooting off the bench. Smith was a perfect 4-of-4 and added 11 points and both Marshall and Fromm tallied 10 each. Kameron Woods, a high school teammate of Gaines', had five rebounds and three steals off the bench as Butler won the glass, 29-21.

IUPUI dropped to 0-7 this season when being outrebounded and has now lost three straight games, all on the road.

The Jaguars turned the ball over 19 times in the loss while collecting just nine Butler miscues at the other end. The victors parlayed the advantage into a 22-5 scoring swing off turnovers.

IUPUI finished the game 5-of-13 from three-point range with junior #P.J. Hubert# hitting 2-of-3 in his third consecutive start.

Despite the two campuses being separated by fewer than seven miles, Wednesday’s game was just the fourth meeting between the two schools. Butler has won all four meetings in the series, all of which have been played at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Wednesday's game marked the Jaguars' first of six against in-state opponents during the month of December. The Jaguars will host IU Northwest (Dec. 11) and Indiana State (Dec. 15) in The Jungle before hitting the road to take on Valparaiso (Dec. 20) and Ball State (Dec. 23) before the Christmas holiday. The Jaguars will then return home to host Fort Wayne in Summit League action inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Thursday, Dec. 27 at 7:00 p.m..
 
Before then, IUPUI will cap the season-long four game road stretch when the Jaguars head to Bowling Green, Ky. to take on Western Kentucky on Saturday (Dec. 8) at 3:00 p.m.. The game can be seen on ESPN3 and ESPN Full Court while the IUPUI radio broadcast can be heard on WNDE.com and on the free iHeartRadio app available on smartphones. Scott McCauley (pxp) will call the action with pregame coverage beginning at approximately 2:45 p.m..