Butler Basketball: Takeaways from Bulldogs’ thrilling double-OT victory

In a double-overtime thriller, Butler basketball needed tremendous efforts from Kelan Martin and Kamar Baldwin to defeat Georgetown.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Big East conference play has started and boy did it start with a bang. In a battle between two schools with new head coaches, Butler basketball needed two overtimes to make an improbable comeback over the Georgetown Hoyas on the evening of Dec. 27. The Dawgs trailed by as much as 20 at one point in this game and they needed every last ounce of energy from their two stars, Kelan Martin and Kamar Baldwin, to walk out of the nation’s capital with a victory.

This was a hard-fought game by both sides and left fans of both teams checking to see if they still had a pulse when the final buzzer sounded. If nothing else, this game was thrilling, especially down the stretch. It all the components of a tremendous start to conference play. There was a dramatic comeback, elite play from stars, and two overtimes for 10 minutes of extra action.

In the first half, though, it did not look like this game would end the way it did. For the first 20 minutes, it was all Georgetown. The Hoyas looked unstoppable on both ends of the floor, shooting 51.7% from the field while holding Butler to just 32.3%. In addition, they were able to force Butler’s star Kelan Martin, who had seven points at the time, into two fouls, causing him to sit for several minutes in the first half.

In the second half, though, Martin came back with a vengeance. He dropped home 14 points in the final 20 minutes of regulation and co-star Kamar Baldwin stepped up with 17 of his own in the second half. Behind these two, the Bulldogs put up 51 second-half points in order to make a storming comeback on the Hoyas.

After a bucket by Georgetown’s Jessie Govan, who had 19 points and 13 rebounds, with six seconds left on the clock, Butler used a tremendous last-second tip-in by sophomore Sean McDermott to send the game to overtime. A look at the clip here:

In both overtime periods, the teams continued to trade punches, with Butler relying on Martin and Baldwin to get buckets and Georgetown knocking down clutch free throws. With the score tied in the second OT period, Butler had the last shot and put the ball in the hands of their senior Martin, who did not disappoint:

This game had more to it than just a summary, though. Let’s get more in-depth and talk about how Butler was able to win this game and what it means for both teams moving forward.