Indianapolis, IN – Roosevelt Jones scored 24 points on 10- of-15 shooting and No. 17 Butler used a late push to take a 70-57 victory over the Pennsylvania Quakers on Wednesday.
Jones also supplied six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block to help the Bulldogs (11-2) to their eighth straight win. Khyle Marshall added 14 points and five boards while Kellen Dunham contributed 10 points off the bench in the win.
"We won the game because of power, the interior guys, Roosevelt (Jones) and Khyle (Marshall) in particular and certainly Andrew (Smith) as well." said Butler head coach Brad Stevens. "Our guards didn't produce the way they normally do, but I thought our guys three through five played pretty well and carried us tonight."
Miles Cartwright paced the Quakers (2-10) with 15 points, but without leading scorer and rebounder Fran Dougherty, who missed his second straight game with mononucleosis, Penn dropped its fifth consecutive contest.
Tony Hicks followed with 10 points in defeat.
"The game just came down to us not having unforced turnovers," Penn coach Jerome Allen said. "Just not catching the ball, dribbling it off our foot and rebounding the ball. Nineteen turnovers and giving up 13 offensive rebounds, you're not going to win many games in Division I college basketball."
Despite missing their best player, the Quakers hung tight with the ranked Butler squad for most of the contest, but allowed a late surge and could not recover.
After scoring seven straight points to come within 52-49, Butler answered with a 10-0 run, with Jones pouring in six during the stretch, to take a 62-49 lead with 5:18 to play.
Penn was only able to cut the deficit to eight before the Bulldogs built their largest lead of the game.
Rotnei Clarke, who shot just 2-for-11 for the game, finished a three-point play to put the Bulldogs back on top by double-digits. Dunham then buried a triple to put the game out of reach before Andrew Smith hit a pair of free throws, giving Butler a 16-point cushion with just over a minute remaining.
Cartwright had the Quakers believing early after hitting back-to-back 3- pointers to put Penn ahead 10-8, but he made just one more shot from beyond the arc the rest of the night and finished a poor 5-of-14 overall.
Jones scored 15 points in the opening half and his layup with 1:28 remaining helped Butler to a 35-29 advantage going into the break.
Game Notes
Butler has won the only two meetings all-time between the schools ... The Bulldogs improved to 6-0 at home this season and 9-0 when leading at halftime ... Penn lost its 34th straight game to a ranked opponent, but with its next victory will become the 11th Division I program to reach 1,700 wins.
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