Miranda Pederson/Daily NewsButler’s Kara Pile (right) steals the ball Wednesday from Marshall County’s Margaret Thomas during an opening round game in the Houchens Industries/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen at E.A. Diddle Arena.Click here for more photos from the Sweet 16.

The last two times Marshall County has played in the Houchens Industries/KHSAA Girl’s Sweet Sixteen, it had to face teams that eventually reached the tournament’s final day.

The Lady Marshals didn’t get a break this year, either.

Louisville Butler is one of the favorites in this year’s event and proved it with 65-38 win Wednesday over the Lady Marshals at E.A. Diddle Arena

Click here for more photos from the Sweet 16.

“If you come up and draw the Butlers, it is just tough to get anything going,” Marshall County coach Howard Beth said. “If you have one game to get going, I think it would be all together different.”

Butler takes on Ohio County at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinal round.

Butler took the lead midway through the first quarter and never looked back. The Bearettes shot 42 percent from the field, led by senior guard Tia Gibbs, who finished the game with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

“We got a lot of nice looks right around the basket,” Butler coach Eddy Wilson said. “I thought from the perimeter we shot it pretty well and from 16 (feet) we shot it really well.”

Marshall County shot 31 percent from the field and was led by junior forward Jessica Holder, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. The Lady Marshals were doomed in the second quarter – after committing nine turnovers in the first, Marshall County was only down six heading into the second quarter. However, giveaways plagued the Lady Marshals, who turned it over 10 times in the second quarter.

“Turnovers was the big problem tonight,” Beth said. “A lot of times we go out and turned the ball over it’s our fault. Their pressure defense away from the basketball is so much better than we’re used to. They played just as good of defense off the basketball as they do on the basketball.”

Butler took advantage of the Lady Marshals’ mistakes and scored 28 points off turnovers for the game. The Bearettes held Marshall County to just one field goal and five points for the quarter.

Butler went on a 10-0 run and took a 25-11 lead in the middle of the second quarter to hold a 32-14 lead at halftime.

“We spread them around a bit and once we got settled in and we got to where we were in our offense, we got some easy baskets and helped us get into a flow,” Wilson said.

Things didn’t get better for Marshall County in the second half. The Lady Marshals scored just seven points in the third quarter and Butler used a 10-0 run to help push its lead to 51-21 at the end of the third quarter.

MCHS 9 5 7 17 – 38

BHS 15 17 19 14 – 65

MCHS – Tabor 3, Thomas 4, Hall 3, Ellis 3, Fisk 2, Holder 12, Smith 9, Bohannon 2.

BCHS – Wheat 5, Pile 7, Harris 7, Bates 3, Bibbs 21, Hopper 13, Cureton 2, Reed 7.