Butler v Cleveland State on Tuesday
The Butler Bulldogs, you may not hear much about them but as of press time, they are ranked no.17 in the nation.
Of course, like other bracket-bound teams, the Bulldogs can use all sorts of momentum heading to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament. Thankfully, they have Gordon Howard to make things easier for them.
Gordon Hayward is a top candidate for Horizon League player of the year. All seven of the 6-foot-8 freshman swingman’s best games had him scoring 19 or more points, ironically, all of them have come on the road, including a career-best 27 points in the Bulldogs’ 75-63 victory at Davidson.
He is shooting 52.5 percent from 3-point distance and 85.9 percent at the free-throw line in 14 road games. Hayward said he enjoys playing in hostile environments like Davidson’s sold-out Belk Arena, which holds 5,223. The Butler Bulldogs improved to 11-3 on the road with their 75-63 victory at Davidson. No team in Division I has more road wins.
The last time the Bulldogs met up with the Cleveland State Vikings, Butler edged Cleveland State 50-48 on Dec. 4 on a 3-pointer by Zach Hahn with one second remaining, capping a wild finish that featured three lead changes in the last 19 seconds. The Bulldogs shot 31.5 percent from the field, but that was better than the Vikings at 25.9 percent. Cleveland State made just one of 11 3-pointers.
After the Vikings’ seven-game winning streak was finally snapped, expect them to bounce back against the Bulldogs. The Vikings entered the week in third place in the Horizon League with two games left. They were two games behind Butler and one behind Wisconsin-Green Bay.
With the league’s top two seeds earning byes into the conference tournament semifinals, expect both of these teams to go all out down the stretch.
Can the Butler Bulldogs beat the Cleveland State Vikings? SportsBetting.com has the odds.
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