January 6, 2007

Associated Press
Rivals.com College Basketball

? Box score

INDIANAPOLIS -A.J. Graves scored 19 points and stretched his streak of consecutive free throws made to 52, leading No. 13 Butler to a 73-42 victory over Wright State on Saturday.

The Bulldogs (14-1, 3-0 Horizon League), off to the school's best start after the first 15 games of a season, took control with a 16-point run in the first half. They built the lead to 30 points with another run of 14 straight early in the second half and never led by less than 26 points after that.

Graves, who made all five of his foul shots to improve to 80-for-81 for the season, hit two straight 3-pointers to finish off the Bulldogs' second big run. Another 3 by Graves and one by Marcus Nellems pushed the lead to 61-29 with 9 minutes to go.

Graves, whose free throw streak is the longest for Butler since Darnell Archeyp set the NCAA Division I record with 85 straight four years ago, gave Butler a 66-33 lead with his final two foul shots before retiring to the bench with 5 minutes remaining.

Pete Campbell, who sat out last year after transferring to Butler from IPFW, had a season-high 12 points, all on 3-pointers, and Drew Streicher added 10 points for the Bulldogs.

The Raiders (9-7, 2-1), led by DaShaun Wood with 12 points, finished with a season-low in points on just 38 percent shooting and had a four-game winning streak snapped.

Butler, which had lost six of its last seven games against Wright State, never trailed this time.

A 3-pointer by Graves broke the only tie in the opening minutes, but the Bulldogs didn't start pulling away until midway through the first half.

A layup by Julian Betko, a 3-pointer by Mike Green and a basket and free throw by Streicher gave Butler its first double-digit lead. Wright state continued missing, and another basket by Graves and two straight 3-pointers by Campbell finished the Bulldogs' 16-point run. Wood ended the streak with two free throws, stretching his streak to 30 in a row, but Graves was fouled on a 3-point attempt and hit all three free throws.

A basket by freshman Vaughn Duggins was the Raiders' first field goal in almost 10 minutes, but another 3-pointer by Campbell a half-minute later gave Butler its biggest lead of the half, 33-13. The Bulldogs' biggest leads were 35 points in the game's closing minutes.