Butler back but now must face No. 1 seed Pittsburgh
One-time Cinderella turned mid-major power Butler move on to face the top-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers in a Southeast Region third round game at the Verizon Center in Washington on Saturday.
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#8 Butler (234-9, 13-5 Horizon) vs. vs. #1 Pittsburgh (28-5, 15-3 Big East)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 19, 7:10 PM ET
Venue: Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
Broadcast: TBS
Money Line: Pittsburgh -350, Butler +290
Spread: Pittsburgh -7.5
Over/Under: 128
The darlings of last season’s tournament are back, but the Bulldogs won a game on the most improbable of shots — a would-be disaster that could have fallen apart three different ways, as they edged out Old Dominion 60-58 on Thursday. The game featured 21 lead changes, and neither team led by more than six points.
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But it was Matt Howard’s layup at the buzzer that gave Butler the victory. Howard finished tied for a team-high 15 points with Shelvin Mack as the Bulldogs improve to 14-3 in the month of March under head coach Brad Stevens.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh used its time off wisely after being knocked out of the Big East Conference tournament one week ago, and took out their frustrations on 16th seeded play in contender North Carolina Asheville, thrashing them, 74-51.
That’s usually what happens in a mismatch of this magnitude as the top seed went on a run, outscoring the bottom seed by 16 points to finish the game. The Panthers kept the perfect 1-vs.-16 mark in the NCAA tournament firmly intact cruising to an easy win in their tenth consecutive tournament appearance.
Ashton Gibbs scored a game-high 26 points for the Panthers, hitting 9 of 17 shots from the field and 6 of 10 3-pointers. Pitt also outrebounded UNC-Asheville 54-30 with Gary McGhee, who had seven points and 11 rebounds, leading the way.
The Bulldogs have reeled off 10 consecutive victories entering Saturday’s tilt. The Dogs are making an 11th appearance in the tournament all-time and are the only thing standing in the way of Pitts chances of trying to reach their first Final Four since 1957.
The Bulldogs will look to veteran leadership from senior Matt Howard (16.7 PPG) and junior Shelvin Mack (15.2 PPG) to counter the Panthers relentless offensive attack.
The odds makers have the Pittsburgh Panthers as a -7.5 point favorite with an over/under of 128.
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Prediction: Butler made a solid run to get into this tournament, but the Big East regular season winners will be too much for the Bulldogs to handle in this contest.
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