Southern Utah vs. Butler final score: Bulldogs cruise to easy victory

It was an easy night for Roosevelt Jones and the Butler Bulldogs as his second-straight double-double helped the 'Dawgs to a big win over the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Butler got off to a quick start in the first half as they jumped on Southern Utah early as the Bulldogs raced out to a 48-28 lead at half time. Both teams shot great from the floor as Butler shot 68 percent from the field and the Thunderbirds shot around 44 percent. Southern Utah also shot around 58 percent from three, but had nine turnovers in the first half and Butler made them pay for it.

The Bulldogs got solid scoring from almost everyone who stepped on the court in the first half. Kelan Martin led the way for Butler with nine points in the first half while Southern Utah were led by Travan Langston who had 15 points and shot 60 percent from the field in the first half.

It was more of the same from the Bulldogs as they put up another 40 point half as Southern Utah started to shoot more poorly from the field as the game went on. After shooting 44 percent from the field in the first half, the Thunderbirds ended up with a 32 percent shooting average as the twenty point gap at the half just kept getting bigger and bigger.

Here are three things we learned from the game.

1. Efficient shooting powered Butler to victory

It was a good shooting night for Chris Holtmann and Butler as they shot 63.8 percent from 58 attempts from the field. Tyler Wideman was the most efficient on the night as he made all seven of his attempts on the night which led to 15 points for the junior. Kellen Dunham however, had a horrible night shooting as he shot only 2-of-10, as the senior from Pendleton is going through a bit of a spell at the moment. It was a good night overall as Butler scored just around the same number of points per game that the usually do (89.9 per game).

Solid night for the second best offense in college basketball.

2. Everyone can contribute

Outside of Trey Pettus everyone scored for Butler tonight. Wideman and Jones led the way with 15 and 12 respectively for the team. Butler had four players score in double figures tonight and it showed as they score more than 40 points in each half. As mentioned earlier, it was an easy night for Butler and it was a total team effort on the offensive end.

3. Better free throw shooting could be needed soon

If there was something from this game that Butler could improve on in the future it was free throw shooting. Butler shot 40 percent from the free throw line. For a team that usually shoots around 74 percent from the line, good for 43rd in the nation, it was a poor night for Butler in that regard and one that hopefully will be forgotten.