NCAA College Basketball Box Scores

National Basketball Association

BOXSCORE | RECAP

Butler 81, Vermont 69

When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Where: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Officials: # Bo Boroski, # Jeff Clark, # Matt Potter
Attendance: 7898

By The Sports Xchange

INDIANAPOLIS -- Butler senior forward Andrew Chrabascz was quick to share the credit for his offensive explosion on Wednesday night

"The guys were finding great opportunities for me to score, back to the basket on that block is a great spot for me," Chrabascz said. "Coach (Chris Holtmann) has drawn that up for me. The guys set great screens for me."

Chrabascz scored a season-high 28 points to help No. 13 Butler to an 81-69 victory over Vermont at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Chrabascz, whose career high is 30, sank 12 of 18 shots as the Bulldogs improved to 11-1.

Vermont coach John Becker was plenty familiar with Chrabascz, from Portsmouth, R.I., as he recruited him before it became clear Chrabascz was high major player.

"He's a productive player and I've always been a huge fan of his and he's became a really good player," said Becker, whose team's record dropped to 8-5. "It wasn't a pleasure to play against him but he'll be a pleasure to watch the rest of the year."

One thing didn't please the 6-foot-7 Chrabascz.

"I only had one rebound in however many minutes (35 minutes) I played and that's unacceptable for me," Chrabascz said.

The Catamounts and Bulldogs were tied with 32 rebounds.

"They make it difficult for you in a lot of ways," Holtmann said of Vermont. "I have a lot of respect for them and the kind of season I think they are going to have. The bottom line is we got exposed in some areas that are real concern. We're going to need to shore up before we get to Big East play. I think they out-tough us in a lot of ways physically so that's a real concern. We'll have to evaluate things on film and move forward. They knocked a lot of basketballs loose and they beat us to balls. They pursued balls harder than us at times. We're not offensively rebounding very well right now."

This was the last non-conference game for the Bulldogs, who open Big East play Dec. 29 at St. John's.

Butler junior forward Kelan Martin added 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Martin made all three 3-pointers and all six free throws.

"I've just become more consistent with my (3-point) shot," Martin said. "I've been going to gym late nights and working on the consistency."

It was the 100th coaching victory for Holtmann, who is now 100-77 overall and 56-23 at Butler.

As a team, the Bulldogs sank 16 of 23 shots (69.6 percent) in the second half.

The Bulldogs led 50-35 before the Catamounts rallied to cut it to eight points at 61-53 with 9:07 remaining. That's as close as Vermont got.

Trae Bell-Haynes and Drew Urquhart each had 14 points for Vermont. The Catamounts, who shot 42.4 percent overall, played with leading scorer Payton Henson, who missed second consecutive game with a knee injury.

Chrabascz scored 15 points in the first half to help the Bulldogs to a 40-30 lead at halftime.

Dre Wills, from Indianapolis Ben Davis High School, scored on a layup to trim Butler's lead to 22-20 with 9:15 left in the first half.

The Bulldogs went on 7-0 run to expand the lead to 29-20. Butler led by as many as 14 at 38-24 with 1:30 to go.

NOTES: Former Columbus (Ind.) North High School standout Josh Speidel, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car wreck February 2015, isn't playing for Vermont as a freshman but is on the roster. He traveled to Butler with his teammates. ... Chrabascz became the 38th Bulldog to reach 1,000 points during Saturday's victory over Indiana. Martin is close to reaching that point with 986 points. ... Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who coached Butler in two NCAA title game appearances in 2010 and 2011, attended the game. The Celtics play the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night.

Top Game Performances

Vermont		Butler
Trae Bell-Haynes 14	Scoring	Andrew Chrabascz 28
Trae Bell-Haynes 3	Assists	Tyler Lewis 7
Drew Urquhart 10	Rebounds	Kelan Martin 8
Anthony Lamb 5	Free Throws Made	Kelan Martin 6
Anthony Lamb 2	Steals	Kamar Baldwin 2
Anthony Lamb 1	Blocks	Kelan Martin 3

Team Stats Summary

Team	Points	FG%	3PM-3PA	FTM-FTA	Assists	Rebounds	Blocks	Steals	Turnovers
Vermont	69	42.4	3-12	16-22	8	27	1	5	9
Butler	81	57.1	5-10	12-16	14	32	4	5	10