Bulldogs defeat Braves

The Butler Bulldogs defeated the Bradley Braves 83-64 tonight in front of a crowd of 4,596 at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The dawgs were led by AJ Graves with 21 points. Other Bulldogs in double figures were Mike Green with 17 points, Matt Howard with 14 points and Willie Veasley with 12 points, a career high for him.

Pete Campbell played 9 minutes in the game tonight and scored 3 points. Coach Stevens told the radio postgame show that he had a 10 minute limit.

Avery Jukes also made his debut for the Bulldogs tonight. He made a great basket with 31 seconds left in the game. He was fouled on the play, but was unable to make the free throw. Jukes transfered to Butler from Alabama at the end after the fall 2006 semester. He had to sit out last spring and this fall due to NCAA rules. Now that classes and final exams are finished, he became eligible to play.

The game was tied at 17 at the 6:12 mark in the first half. At that point, the dawgs went on a 12-0 run that ended at the 1:01 mark when Bradley scored. With 9 seconds left in the half AJ Graves hit a trey. The dawgs went into the locker room with a 15 point lead, 34-19.

The dawgs largest lead was 53-26 at the 15:30 mark. Bradley played well at that point to cut the lead to 59-53 with 7:22 left in the game. The dawgs played very well at that point.

The big difference in the game is the 3 point shooting percentage. Both teams attempted 19 shots. The bulldogs made 8 of them (42.1%) and Bradley only made 3 of them (15.8%)

The Bulldogs travel to Florida Golf Coast for their next game which is set to tip off at 7:00 on Saturday.