Butler posted its fourth consecutive victory with an 80-57 win over DePaul Saturday afternoon at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The win moves the Bulldogs to 17-7 overall and 7-4 in BIG EAST play.
 
Senior Kelan Martin led the Bulldogs with 26 points, six rebounds and six assists. He was the high man in all three categories.
 
A 20-1 run turned a six-point deficit into a 25-12 lead with 7:45 to play in the first half. And from there, the Bulldogs were off and running.
 
"It was great to be back at Hinkle today. There's nothing better than a noon tip on a Saturday in this building," said Butler coach LaVall Jordan. "It took both teams a little bit to wake up early, but we really picked it up defensively in the first half. Our attention span was longer and we were closer to a complete game today. Our bench really raised our level today, especially defensively."
 
Butler limited DePaul to 39-percent shooting and only 3-of-12 from behind the arc. The Bulldogs forced the visitors into 23 turnovers, converting those into 27 points. That included a season-high 14 steals. It was Butler's fifth straight strong defensive performance, as all five opponents during that stretch have been held to no more than 72 points.
 
After Butler's early run, DePaul would trim the lead to seven points in the closing minute of the first half before a Martin three-pointer made it 40-30 at the half. The lead never made it back to single digits in the second half.
 
DePaul's Eli Cain and Max Strus entered the game averaging a combined 29.6 points per game; the Bulldogs limited the duo to nine on 1-of-14 shooting.
 
Martin's 14^th 20-point game of the season came on 7-of-13 shooting. He made 10 of his 11 free throw attempts. His six assists were one shy of his career-high.
 
Paul Jorgensen (13), Kamar Baldwin (10) and Sean McDermott (10) joined Martin in double figures. Tyler Wideman had eight points. Butler shot 44 percent from the field, but assisted on 19 of its 27 field goals. As a team, the Bulldogs went 16-of-17 at the line.
 
Baldwin had four steals in 23 minutes as he battled foul trouble for much of the first half.
 
Butler improved to 12-1 this season at Hinkle Fieldhouse and 12-1 when scoring 80 or more points. Campbell Donovan's first career three-pointer pushed Butler to 80 points in the closing minutes, which also means a free lemonade at a local Penn Station thanks to #Lemon80.
 
Including today's game, five of Butler's next six games are at Hinkle Fieldhouse. That continues Tuesday when Xavier visits for a 6:30 p.m. tip. A limited number of tickets are available for the game that will also air nationally on FS1.