INDIANAPOLIS — Paul Jorgensen started to chuckle to himself as he and his fellow Butler Bulldogs walked toward their bench during a timeout at the 9:18 mark of the first half.

The redshirt senior guard had just watched redshirt junior forward Sean McDermott nail a 3 off a pass from sophomore point guard Aaron Thompson to put the Bulldogs up, 34-12, on the Northern Illinois Huskies. Butler was 8-of-12 on 3s. Northern Illinois couldn't stop the bleeding and was trying to survive until halftime.

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And so, the chuckling.

But it wasn’t a laugh that came from a state of disbelief. Butler coach LaVall Jordan made that clear after the game. The Bulldogs (7-2) were just happy, clicking, hitting their shots and on the way to a 95-68 blowout victory.

“I think that was — not that you’re going to make all the shots — but we talk about getting off to a good start,” Jordan said. “Setting the tone.”

Butler shot 64.7 percent on 3s in the first half and 53.1 percent overall. The Bulldogs hit 17-of-32 shots from behind the arc compared to the Huskies’ 23 makes on 46 attempts from anywhere on the floor. Butler made a 50 percent mark from the nation’s fifth-best shooting team in Division One entering the game look more like 30, both with a strong shooting performance and defense that kept quality opportunities to a minimum.

It started with junior guard Kamar Baldwin, who hit Butler’s first shot and 3 just 44 seconds into the game and gave the Bulldogs the lead for good. He’d finish with 13 points and seven rebounds. Jorgensen scored 16 of his own and redshirt sophomore center Joey Brunk scored 15 off the bench. But no one could match McDermott’s touch.

The Anderson native out of Pendleton Heights High School nailed seven 3s on 12 attempts and added two free throws to score a career-high 23 points. And he did it in 27 minutes.

“It’s a confidence builder but also at the same time there wasn’t a shot I made that wasn’t assisted on,” McDermott said. “It built my confidence also in, ‘Wow, I have great teammates that are setting me up in positions were my shots aren’t too difficult.’ Just thankful for the guys around me.”

Three of those seven assists came from Thompson, who recorded a career-high nine assists to go along with his four points. But there was senior center Nate Fowler, among others, getting into the act as well.

Fowler and Brunk combined to finish with seven assists and one turnover.

“Scoring is one thing, when we can find them in good positions,” said Jordan about the pair. “But I think their ability to pass it — us playing through them sometimes relieves the pressure on Kamar, Pauly, AT, to have to do so much off the bounce. They’ve grown.”

Butler assisted on 27 of its 34 made baskets and flirted with the team record for assists in a game — 31 against Oral Roberts in 1984. The ball movement, which started at the top with Thompson but continued down low with Fowler and Brunk, frustrated the Huskies defense. Although, Northern Illinois (5-4) coach Mark Montgomery said after the game he was disappointed in his team’s fight at times.

“Just feel like they were comfortable and it was shooting practice for them,” Montgomery said. “You have to guard the ball. Trust me, we do one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three shell (drills). We do all of the defensive drills and we just didn’t guard this afternoon, unfortunately.”

The Huskies even switched from man-to-man defense to zone and back again at one point in the first half, to no avail. Butler’s bench added to the scoring with 35 points of its own, compared to 19 from NIU’s bench, and the Bulldogs averaged 1.5 points per possession. Nineteen points off 10 Huskies turnovers compared to nine points for NIU off seven Butler turnovers helped, too.

The Indiana Hoosiers are up next for the Bulldogs in the Crossroads Classic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. IU just beat Louisville. Not long after that for Butler is conference play.

“If Butler continues to shoot like that,” Montgomery joked, “they’re going to win the Big East running away.”

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.