Indianapolis, Indiana - In their final non-conference contest of the season the Thunderbird men's basketball team were in Hinkle Fieldhouse to take on the No. 9/12 Butler, and came out on the losing side as the T-Birds fell to the Bulldogs 88–52.

The Bulldogs scored the first seven points of the ball game, but Thunderbird guard Trey Kennedy responded quickly with a pair of three-point baskets to cut the Butler lead to just one. From that point, the Bulldogs used a string of runs to build a lead as high as 18. The T-Birds wouldn't go away as they used a 7–0 run to cut the lead down to 11, but a late spurt by Butler to close the half gave them a 20 point lead after 20 minutes, 48–28.

“Butler is extremely balanced, well coached, and capitalized on our turnovers tonight,” SUU head coach Nick Robinson said about the Bulldogs. “They're a Top 10 team for a good reason.”

Travon Langston did a good job keeping the T-Birds in the contest for the first 20 minutes, scoring 15 points in the first half. Trey Kennedy dropped in eight points as well before the break.

Butler came out of the half time break firing, scoring the first 11 points of the half, a streak that was snapped by a Kennedy layup with about 15 minutes to play, but had pushed the lead past the 30 point mark.

The Bulldogs were able to hold on, and didn't give the Thunderbirds many chances to get a significant amount of offensive momentum, taking the contest by a final of 88–52.

Langston led the team in scoring, finishing the game with 17 points. Kennedy finished with 10 points, and Christian Thompson was the team's third leading scorer with seven.

“We played solid from an execution standpoint, and the effort and energy from our bench tonight was great,” Robinson said.

Tyler Wideman led the Bulldogs in scoring with 15 points, finishing the game seven-of-seven from the field, doing it in just 17 minutes of play. Three other Bulldogs finished the game in double-digit scoring, with Roosevelt Jones and Kelan Jones scoring 12 points, and Andrew Chrabascz dropping in 11.  

This game wrapped up the T-Bird's three game road swing, and even though they didn't pull away with a win Robinson said the team can take away a lot from it.

“We've learned a lot this road trip,” he said. “We've grown as a team, and it's time to move on to conference play.”

This contest was the final tune up for the Thunderbirds, as they will now dive head first into Big Sky Conference play. The T-Birds will start their conference season at home on December 31st, as they will host Montana State at 4:00 p.m. in the Centrum arena.

The Big Sky opener will be broadcast on WatchBigSky.com and can also be heard over the airwaves on KSUB 590. Updates can be followed on Twitter @SUUGameday.