McDermott leads Butler past Northern Illinois 95-68

Dec 9, 2018, 12:30 am

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sean McDermott scored a career-high 23 points, tying his career best with seven 3-pointers, and Butler breezed to a 95-68 victory over Northern Illinois on Saturday.

Paul Jorgensen sank four 3-pointers and scored 16 for the Bulldogs (7-2), who have held all but one opponent under 70 points this season. Kamar Baldwin finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Reserve Joey Brunk scored 15 -- shooting 6 for 6 from the field and 3 for 3 from the free-throw line -- and Henry Baddley came off the bench to score 11 with five rebounds.

Butler shot the lights out in the first half, connecting on 19 of 28 attempts from the floor (68 percent) and 11 of 17 from 3-point range, to take a 51-28 lead into intermission.

Eugene German paced the Huskies (5-4) with 20 points and eight rebounds, while Levi Bradley scored 14.

The two schools played each other for the first time since 1997 when both were members of the defunct Midwestern Collegiate Conference. Butler improved to 6-0 at home this season and notched its 48th straight win on its homecourt against nonconference opponents. Only Duke and Arizona have longer streaks.