The third time was the charm for Butler (10-20) as the 9th seeded Bulldogs won a tight one down the stretch against the 8th seeded Xavier Musketeers (17-13), 48-47. The win Saturday afternoon was Butler’s first women’s Big East tournament victory since joining the conference two years ago.

Butler’s pesky 2-3 zone defense gave the Musketeers fits throughout the afternoon, especially in the first half and towards the end of the 4th quarter. Butler’s zone only let up 15 points in the first half and made key defensive stops down the stretch when the Bulldogs desperately needed stops.

“We just stayed in the paint and focused on stopping the inside before outside,” Butler senior guard Blaire Langlois said. “They didn’t know what to do when we weren’t all spread out. A lot of the things that they tried to do was high low, and (the zone) really messed with them.”

Langlois led all scorers with 20 points on an efficient 8 for 15 shooting, 8 total rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

“I just kept attacking,” Langlois said. “We were setting that high ball screen, and they seemed to get stuck on it. I would just keep attacking and either look for a post player, or a lot of times I had the lane.”

Butler lost in its first two previous matchups with Xavier. In the first matchup, Butler fell 73-63 at home, and in the second meeting they fell again, 55-47.

Luckily for head coach Godlevske and his Butler Bulldogs, they made the correct adjustments heading into the opening round of Big East Tournament play.

“We worked on getting out and taking away wings, and taking away short corners,” Godlevske said. “Xavier, in the first two meetings, did a terrific job of moving their interior players, and consequently our guards were having to come way down, (which allowed) Zantt in those first two games to hit big shots against us.”

The game would come down to the final moments, where it seemed like Butler had to make defensive stop after defensive stop to hold onto their one point lead in the final minute of the fourth. All culminating in a devastating block from Butler freshman forward Tori Schickel, that left only 1.7 seconds on the clock for Xavier to muster up a shot. Unfortunately, the next play resulted in Xavier struggling to get up a solid shot, and Butler would take the game.

Xavier was lead in scoring by senior guard Jenna Crittendon with 14 points, which included four 3-pointers, and ALL-BIG EAST Honorable mention senior forward Briana Glover who had 13 points.

“We knew they were going to play a 2-3 zone,” Xavier head coach Brian Neal said. “They just sat back in their zone. We just either dribbled the ball into the ground, or we just wouldn’t attack it like we should’ve been attacking it.”

The loss Saturday marks Xavier’s seventh loss in a row to close out Big East. The Musketeers were 17-6 before the losing streak began, and looked like a prominent pick for the NCAA tournament.

After the victory Saturday, Butler will now have the opportunity to play the no. 1 seeded DePaul Blue Demons Sunday at 6 p.m.