Tornado survive scare




SHALER TWP — Butler was seemingly on easy street.

Then the Golden Tornado hit a stretch of rough road and barely survived in a 62-56 Section 3-AAAA boys basketball victory Tuesday night at Shaler.
But survive they did.
“We’ll take it,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “We won a section game on the road on a Tuesday night and that’s hard to do.
“Up until the final three minutes, we stayed in pretty firm control of this game.”
The Tornado (5-0, 2-0) jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first four minutes and never trailed all evening. Their lead peaked at 16 (39-23) with 1:19 left in the third quarter and Butler led 55-41 with 3:02 left in the game.
With 17 seconds remaining, that lead was 59-56.
“We made a lot of mistakes down the stretch,” Clement said. “We went right at the basket when we didn’t need to, we missed free throws, we allowed them too much penetration ... I didn’t have to tell the kids that after the game. They knew it.”
Consecutive treys by Shaler’s Rob Reinheimer and Brendan Deasy cut the gap to 55-47. After Butler missed a pair of free throws, Nick Fuch drove to the hoop for a layup.
Two Justice Lewandowski free throws and one by Keenan Krause temporarily stemmed the tide, but Deasy canned another trey and Tanner Reinheimer sank four free throws, the latter pair cutting the gap to 59-56 with 17 seconds left.
“I’m pleased with the fact we made it a one-possession game,” Shaler coach Brian Bibey said. “But it’s a 32-minute game, not a 3-minute game. We didn’t meet the demands of the game tonight.”
Senior forward Mark Gross met the challenge for Butler, hitting two free throws with 16.8 seconds left. Tyler Frederick followed with a steal, Andrew Paterno sank a free throw with 7.9 seconds to play and Butler had its victory.
“Mark has been a clutch player at the line,” Clement said. “He hit a few down the stretch against North Hills and helped us close out that game.
“That was the biggest difference between that game and this game. We didn’t hit our free throws down the stretch tonight.”
Butler missed seven free throws in the final four minutes. Shaler (1-5, 0-2) sank 11 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter.
“We waited until desperation time to turn it on. It’s as simple as that,” Bibey said. “Butler came in here ready to play from the start. That’s what won them the game.”
Frederick paced the Tornado with 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Joel Stutz came off the bench to score 11 points, including two treys. Gross had 10 points and eight rebounds.
Paterno contributed seven points, three assists and three steals.
“Tyler keeps improving with every game. He’s become a key cog on this team ... and I’m excited to be saying that about a sophomore,” Clement said.
“We’ve got some things to clean up in terms of protecting a lead. But we haven’t had many fourth-quarter leads over the past couple of years. This is new territory for us right now. We’ll get better at it.”
Butler had 12 of its 17 turnovers in the second half. Shaler had 13 turnovers, only five in the latter two quarters. Tanner Reinheimer paced the Titans with 20 points and four steals. Rob Reinheimer had 14 points, Deasy 13.
The Tornado junior varsity also remained undefeated as Cade Negley sank a trey at the buzzer for a 66-63 triumph.
BUTLER 62
Damien Pickett 1-1 0-0 2, Kelley Kuharic 0-1 0-0 0, Kaden Rock 0-2 0-0 0, Jace Stutz 1-2 2-3 4, Justice Lewandowski 2-5 2-2 7, Keenan Krause 1-2 1-5 4, Andrew Paterno 2-3 1-2 7, Tyler Frederick 6-12 3-4 15, Jake Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Joel Stutz 4-7 1-1 11, Eric Hindman 1-1 0-0 2, Mark Gross 3-4 4-6 10. Totals: 21-40 14-23 62.
SHALER 56
Nick Fuch 1-1 0-2 2, Antonio Venezia 1-4 1-2 3, Rob Reinheimer 4-9 5-6 14, EJ Posa 2-2 0-0 4, Brendan Deasy 4-11 2-2 13, Tanner Reinheimer 6-14 6-6 20, Brennan Keillar 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Grande 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-41 14-18 56.
Butler 16 17 9 20 — 62
Shaler10 10 10 26 — 56
3-point goals: Lewandowski, Krause, Paterno 2, Jo.Stutz 2; R.Reinheimer, Deasy 3, T.Reinheimer 2
JV: Butler, 66-63 (B: Connor Ollio 24, Jefferson Ford 10; S: Anthony Venezia 24, Nate Grande 13)