Finley Bizjack scored a season-high 29 points and tied his career high with six 3-pointers while leading Butler to an 84-68 victory over Eastern Michigan on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
Michael Ajayi added his seventh double-double of the season with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Butler (7-1) outscored Eastern Michigan 36-26, marking the seventh time this season they have out-rebounded their opponent.
Butler shot 51.8% from the floor and went 11 of 20 from 3-point range.
Mohammad Habhab led Eastern Michigan (5-4) with 15 points, including 11 in the second half. Mak Manciel added 12 points coming off the bench while Addison Patterson and Carlos Hart both scored 11.
Bizjack shot 10-for-14 from the floor and 6-for-10 from beyond the arc. After scoring 14 points in the first half, he continued his dominance, scoring eight of Butler’s first 11 points in the second. His three-point play gave the Bulldogs a 52-41 lead with 15:01 to play. Azavier Robinson then made a 3-pointer to give Butler a 59-46 lead.
Robinson, however, was ejected with 9:26 remaining following a flagrant 2 foul for kicking Patterson, who was on the floor after a dunk. After the ejection, the Bulldogs went on an 8-2 run to take a 73-57 lead with 5:02 to play.
Eastern Michigan had several droughts of two minutes or more in the second half.
After Butler led 25-21 in the first half, Eastern Michigan went on an 8-0 run to take over. Hart and Aidan Rubio each hit a triple in the spurt, and Patterson capped it off with a breakaway dunk off a steal from Rubio.
Butler, however, responded immediately with a 16-4 run to take an eight-point lead with 31 seconds left in the half. Manciel sent the Eagles into the break trailing by five points with a triple before the buzzer.
Eastern Michigan went 6 of 7 from long range in the first half but just 2 of 7 in the second, while Butler went 8 of 11 in the first half and 3 of 9 after the break.
Butler recorded its fourth straight victory while Eastern Michigan had a two-game winning streak.
–Field level media
