The Dawgs survived to pick up a much-needed victory.
The Butler Bulldogs emerged victorious in a close one on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs hung on to defeat the DePaul Blue Demons, 73-71. Chuck Harris went one-for-two on his final free throw attempts and Simas Lukosius pulled in an offensive rebound to secure the victory after Harris’ missed free throw.
Butler trailed by nine points with 8:22 to go in the second half. It seemed DePaul was going to barrel towards a much-needed win for themselves. However, things fell apart. A 6-0 run shrunk DePaul’s lead down to three. DePaul was able to answer, but BU responded with a 7-2 run to tie the game.
DePaul broke the tie but the teams would trade buckets for a little bit. Lukosius then nailed a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining to prop Butler up by 3 points. Javon Freeman-Liberty hit two free throws, but it wasn’t enough after the aforementioned ending sequence went the way it did.
Lukosius finished with 19 points, a game-high mark. Nine different players across both teams got into double figures as defense was at a premium even despite the ‘low’ score. Chuck Harris followed Lukosius with 18 points of his own while Jayden Taylor and Aaron Thompson chipped in 12 and 11. David Jones led DePaul with 17 points on the evening. Nick Ongenda scored 14, Freeman-Liberty added 13, and Jalen Terry and Brandon Johnson rounded things out with 11 and 10.
Butler is in Big East action again this Friday against St. John’s. DePaul, meanwhile, resurfaces on Thursday against Creighton.