INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Wofford men's basketball team traveled to Butler on Saturday night for its second matchup in the 2019 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Classic, dropping the contest 80-61 at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.
"Overall, there's a lot to build on with this game," McAuley said. "Obviously, we usually shoot the ball a lot better than that, but I thought we battled on the boards which was a step up from the first few games."
The Terriers struggled from downtown, connecting on just five of 27 attempts on the night (18.5%). Going into Saturday, Wofford had hit at least 10 treys in its first three games, shooting at a 42.7 percent clip Wofford grabbed 27 rebounds and got 11 points from its bench in the game, but allowed 40 points in the paint. Butler, meanwhile, went 6-for-16 from behind the arc (38%), shooting 56 percent from the floor and 84 percent from the free throw line while committing just eight turnovers.
"Credit to Butler and their staff," Wofford head coach Jay McAuley said. "They've got a tough outfit and they are going to win a lot of games this year. They've got a lot of weapons and any time you have guards that can get to the line like they do, it makes for real balanced attack.:
Storm Murphy continued his hot shooting, scoring team-high 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor, going 3-of-5 from 3-point range for the Terriers. Chevez Goodwin and Nathan Hoover each scored 12 points, with Goodwin and Trevor Stumpe each pulling down five rebounds.
"Storm is a terrific ballplayer," said McAuley of Murphy. "When you lose 65 percent of your scoring and rebounding like we did last year, some roles have to be elevated, but he certainly can provide that. We'll have to continue to lean on him moving forward."
With the loss, Wofford is now 2-2 on the young season and will travel to Missouri for another Hall of Fame Classic game against the Tigers on Monday at 8 p.m.
The Bulldogs were scoring right out of the gate, but a stepback three from Murphy and buckets from a trio of Terriers knotted the half up at 11-11. Murphy knocked down another three but a nine to four run put Butler ahead 24-18 at the 7:47 mark. After the Bulldogs pushed their lead to eight, Messiah Jones made a tough bucket in traffic and finished a feed from Ryan Larson the next time down the court to make the score 28-24.
With Murphy sitting due to foul trouble, Butler began to knock down shots from behind the arc, connecting on back-to-back possessions to give themselves Bulldogs a 10-point advantage with a little over four minutes to play in the first. From here, Butler closed the half on an 8-1 run, going into the break ahead 44-27.
"There was a couple stretches in the game that we let get away from us, and that was one of them," McAuley said.
Trailing 48-30 early in the second, Wofford worked its way back into the game, scoring eight of the next 10 points as it looked to close the gap. The Bulldogs responded with a seven to one run of their own, re-gaining control of the half.
The Terriers would turn the pressure up defensively, creating turnovers off the full-court press and turning them into buckets as Larson took a swipe in for a score to make the score 65-52, forcing a timeout from Butler. Hoover would begin to find his stride, scoring in the lane and knocking down a three to pull Wofford to within 10 points with 7:20 to play. The Bulldogs responded strongly, however, scoring nine unanswered out of the break, ultimately taking the game 80-61.
"We tried to double their guards at times," McAuley said of Butler. "But those guys are good, unselfish players and made plays for them. And defensively, they are an older group that can switch out matchups and can sniff out actions."
