INDIANAPOLIS — Paul Jorgensen started to chuckle to himself as he and his fellow Butler Bulldogs walked toward their bench during a timeout at the 9:18 mark of the first half.
The redshirt senior guard, along with junior guard Kamar Baldwin and redshirt junior forward Sean McDermott were hitting 3s at the rate they might aim to knock down in a practice. Northern Illinois couldn’t find a way to stop Butler, switching from man-to-man defense to zone and back again at one point. And that electric offense continued in the second half.
Here’s how Butler (7-2) defeated Northern Illinois (5-4), 95-68, and garnered all the momentum it could hope to ahead of a Crossroads Classic matchup against the Indiana Hoosiers:
Fast start
It took just 4:19 for everyone at Hinkle Fieldhouse to discern Butler would defeat Northern Illinois, and that amount of time may even be generous for the Huskies.