With no obstruction between him and the basket, Dan Lambert pivoted and prepared to rise his 6-foot-4 body toward the rim for a two-handed slam dunk.
Back | Next 
Problem: an official tooted his whistle to signal a traveling violation. With little else to worry about -- Butler led by nearly 20 points late in its Region 3-AAAA Tournament opener at Richmond Academy-- Lambert had forgotten to take a dribble.
That was about the only thing that went wrong for Butler in the second half of its 49-32 postseason victory over Hephzibah on Tuesday night.
Without a player scoring in double figures, the Bulldogs shared the ball on offense and moved their feet on defense. They allowed only 12 second-half points, turning a four-point halftime advantage into a runaway victory midway through the third quarter.
The ninth-seeded Bulldogs meet top-seeded and defending champion Richmond Academy in Thursday's quarterfinals.
Richmond Academy hasn't lost a region game this season and has defeated Butler by 19 and 34 points.
Five Butler players scored at least seven points. Sophomore Jeffery Archie, possessing a confident, high-arching jump shot, led the way with nine.
Lambert, a sophomore, and 6-5 brother Ronald Jones, a freshman, made two strong moves inside out of intermission to start a 11-2 run. Their play inside helped Butler get to the foul line 27 times. Butler, which led by double digits for the final 12:19, made 18 of those shots (67 percent), which coach Emmett Rouse cited as a difference-maker along with a limited number of turnovers.
"All year we've had a lot of missed free throws and a lot of turnovers," Rouse said. "We're averaging probably 20, 25 turnovers a game. We had around 10 (against Hephzibah).
"We've been struggling all year to score, but I think it's coming around now."
Freshman Kyle Doyle had a game-best 10 points for Hephzibah.
The Rebels led by as many as nine points in the second quarter, but struggled from the foul line when presented with opportunities to extend that lead. By the time Butler reserve Jordan Tanksley hit a 25-foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer, the Bulldogs were ahead by four.
Hephzibah, the eighth seed, missed 14 of its 20 free throws overall and did not make a jump shot in the second half.
Its 12 second-half points came from a combination of free throws and shots released inside the paint.
"It's been like that (sometimes)," Hephzibah coach Bob Klofenstine said. "We want to pound it inside, and people know we want to pound it inside. They want us to shoot the ball, and that's really not the strength of our team.
"We grind it out, and in the first part of the season we were playing well. I hate to say it, but I really don't know what happened after that."
Rouse spoke to his team inside its locker room for nearly 45 minutes earlier in the year when it opened region play with a 78-59 loss to Richmond Academy that wasn't even that close.
Back in that locker room once again, he was a bit more succinct. Fifteen minutes after his latest win, Rouse was imagining ways his team could compete against the Musketeers, who are ranked No. 2 in the state.
"If we can just play consistent -- that will be the biggest key," Rouse said. "But I know we will compete."
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
