Butler's big half buoys Bulldogs

SAN JOSE, CA (WISH) - All week long, the experts said No. 5 Butler didn't stand a chance against UTEPs size and skill in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Bulldogs silenced the critics Thursday at the HP Pavilion by playing bigger and better than their out-sized opponents.

Heading into half-time, the Dogs found themselves trailing by six. But coming out of the half, they found their range.

"When you have Shelvin Mack and Gordon [Hayward] and Zach [Hahn] on your team anything can happen," said sophomore guard Ronald Nored. "They just start bombing away and then it was our game."

Shelvin Mack sparked the offensive outburst. The sophomore sharpshooter dropped in a career-high seven three-pointers on his way to a game-best 25 points.

"Makes our jobs easy when hes out there just making shots like that," said Gordon Hayward who finished with 13 points of his own. "Once he started hitting it was contagious and a lot of other players started hittin' too."

"That's exactly what we needed," said big-man Matt Howard who spent the day battling UTEP's hulking center Derrick Caracter. "To get on a roll like that, Shelvin was great, everybody got hot and was feeling it after that."

Maybe the most impressive part about the Dogs second-half dominance, was the stage on which they performed.

"They say hey you've been here [to the NCAA tournament] before, that should help," said third-year head coach Brad Stevens. "But you can feel it in the air its different, it's different than anything you've done all season."

Stevens also said his team will need to play better Saturday if they want to beat No. 13 Murray State a team that upset No. 4 Vanderbilt earlier in the day on a last second buzzer-beater by Danero Thomas.

"Definitely another really good team," said Hayward. "So were going to start preparing tonight. I saw they won on a last second shot so theyre going to be on a big high so its going to be a lot of fun to try and get to the next round."