INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Matt Howard doesn't expect any letdowns from
No. 18 Butler, even with at least a share of the Bulldogs'
fourth straight Horizon League regular season title secured.

Howard scored 20 points to lead the Bulldogs past Loyola of
Chicago 62-47 on Monday night for their 13th straight win.
Butler (21-4, 14-0) can clinch the conference title outright
with a victory at Youngstown State on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs are tied for the second-longest winning streak in
the nation with Murray State. Siena has won 15 straight.

"This team is looking for more," Howard said. "If we're going to
keep progressing, it's got to be 40 minutes of basketball to get
to where we want to be."

Willie Veasley had 12 points and eight rebounds for the
Bulldogs, who matched the second-longest winning streak in
school history.

"We haven't won it yet in our eyes," Butler coach Brad Stevens
said of the Horizon League title. "You always like to win it
outright, but to be there on the doorstep and have a chance to
do that, I'm proud of our guys."

Walt Gibler and Geoff McCammon each scored nine points for the
Ramblers (13-11, 4-10), who have lost six of their past seven
games against Butler.

Despite shooting 22 percent from the field in the first half,
the Bulldogs trailed only 26-24 at halftime. Butler started the
game shooting 2 of 18 as the Ramblers took a 15-6 lead 9 minutes
in.

"In the first half, we were really pleased with the defensive
effort and we were really hoping we'd be up a little more,"
Loyola coach Jim Whitesell said. "Our big thing was that we
didn't get a big enough lead there."

The Bulldogs didn't get to double figures until Chase Stigall's
3-pointer with 7 minutes left in the first half cut Loyola's
lead to 15-10.

"Biggest shot of the night was Chase hitting that 3 in the
corner because it got us going," Stevens said. "We were stuck on
six and seven forever."

Veasley's five straight points early in the second half broke a
29-29 tie and gave the Bulldogs their first lead since they
scored the first two points of the game. Butler used a 15-8 run
over the next 8 minutes to open a 49-37 lead. Shelvin Mack's
3-pointer capped the spurt.

Butler finished at 36 percent from the field one game after
shooting nearly 68 percent in Saturday's victory over Wright
State.

"I didn't know if we'd ever get to 20," Stevens said. "Sometimes
your mind wants to do one thing and your body doesn't let you,
but our guys fought through that. It wasn't pretty, but it was
definitely a win that I'm proud of our guys."