Butler 'has to do it by committee.' Pierre Brooks' hot half, Dawgs' balanced attack sink Hoyas
Every now and then, a Butler basketball player is unstoppable. The thing is, such outbursts are largely limited to Bulldog greats, such as Kamar Baldwin or Gordon Hayward.
Pierre Brooks II has not been at West 49th Street long enough to qualify for Butler’s Mount Rushmore. But for one part of one night, he was as great as any Dawg has been during the 2000s.
The Michigan State transfer scored 13 unanswered points in a span of 3 minutes, 15 seconds, sending Butler toward a 90-66 victory over Georgetown on Tuesday at Washington, D.C.
The Bulldogs, favored by just 3.5 points, shot 57% and made 11 shots in a row during the first half.
It was not a solitary performance. All five starters scored in double figures as Butler (13-7, 4-5) tries to keep NCAA tournament hopes alive.
“We’re a team where we need everybody to play well, not great,” coach Thad Matta said. “We’re a team that has to do it by committee.”
Butler returns to Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday to face Villanova. Teamrankings.com posted the Bulldogs’ odds of making the field at 3%.
Georgetown (8-11, 1-7) is 3-46 against Big East opponents since winning the conference tournament in March 2021.
Before Brooks’ burst, the Bulldogs trailed 23-20 at Capital One Arena.
He started with a 3-pointer off an assist by Finley Bizjack. Then he banked in another 3, sank a one-handed floater, scored off an assist by DJ Davis, then hooped a third 3.
After Jalen Thomas’ basket, it was a 15-0 run and a 35-23 lead. The Bulldogs were ahead by as many as 15 points in the first half and by 29 in the second.
Brooks scored 16 of his 20 points in span of 4:20 of the first half. As far as Matta was concerned, more notable were Brooks’ career-high 11 rebounds, giving him a first-ever double-double.
Over six games, Brooks is shooting 58% (23-of-40) on 3-pointers.
Put his D.C. spree with these two:
∎ Baldwin scored 23 points over the closing 11 minutes of an 89-85 overtime victory over Marquette at Hinkle on Jan. 24, 2020.
∎ Hayward, as a freshman, scored 20 of Butler’s 30 points over a 10-minute span of a 75-63 victory at Davidson on Feb. 21, 2009.
There was more to the Bulldogs than Brooks.
Jahmyl Telfort, a 6-7 transfer from Northeastern, underscored that his combination of size and multiple skills — shooting, dribbling, passing, defense — make him unlike anyone else on the roster and unlike few others in the Big East.
Telfort, shooting 29% in the conference, scored 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting — most he has scored since 20 vs. California on Dec. 9. Moreover, he helped limit Big East scoring leader Jayden Epps to 4-of-19 shooting (2-of-13 on 3s).
Butler players would not have heard it, but an FS1 microphone caught Hoyas coach Ed Cooley saying during a timeout:
“Guys, we’re going to be able to score. They can’t guard you.”
No?
The Hoyas shot 35% from the field and 26.5% on 3s. In one long stretch of the second half, they shot 2-of-19, or 10.5%.
“We found some rhythm on offense. And I think that really ignited our defense,” Matta said. “Guys did a really good job of sharing the basketball.”
After Brooks’ 20 and Telfort’s 17, Davis scored 17 points, Thomas 11 (on 5-of-5 shooting) and Posh Alexander 10. Bizjack had eight points off the bench.
Davis, a transfer from UC Irvine, tied his career high of five assists. He was 6-of-6 on free throws, extending his streak to 31 in a row, all in Big East play. He is second in the NCAA at 97% on 64-of-66.
Darnell Archey set the school record of 97.3% on 72-of-74 in 2002-03. Archey holds the NCAA Division I record of 85 in a row.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Butler uses Pierre Brooks' burst, balanced scoring vs. Georgetown
