Tornado
wins tourney
Lewandowski nets 16 points, named MVP
FOX CHAPEL —
The Golden Tornado led the championship game of the Peter Sauer
Memorial Holiday Basketball Tournament, 31-29, with
A 15-4 run at that point upped the lead to 46-33 with
“This was two Quad-A teams going at it
and I thought there was plenty of good defense on both sides,” Fox Chapel coach
Zach Skrinjar said. “Once they had that run ... We just couldn't respond to
it.”
One reason for that was the
“The kids really dug in down the stretch,”
“Their point guard (senior Billy Urso) is one of the best in the
WPIAL. His pull-up jumper is tough to defend and he gets good elevation when he
shoots. But we held him to five points in the second half.”
Urso had 16 points for the game, including tree treys. But
tournament MVP Justice Lewandowski shut him down in the second half — and used
his own 3-point shooting ability to put the Tornado in front.
“Lewy's come a long way. He's worked so hard. He deserves
everything he gets,” Clement said.
Lewandowski sank four treys in the game's first nine minutes,
staking
Andrew Paterno's third trey of the game jump-started the
aforementioned 15-4 run, giving
“Different guys have been hitting them on different nights,”
Clement said of the 3-pointers. “Those three's coupled with our defense have
been a good formula for us.”
Lewandowski paced
Frederick and Gross joined Lewandowski on the all-tournament
team.
“Those were three obvious choices, the way they played down
here,” Clement said of the three-game tournament. “And Keenan Krause played
outstanding defense for us in all three of these games.”
Krause and Joel Stutz had three assists each for
“It feels great to be named MVP,” Lewandowski said. “But my
teammates played a huge role in getting this thing done.
“I do treat guarding the other team's best scorer as a challenge.
I like how the coaches trust me to do the job there and I don't want to let
anybody down.”
As for his early treys, Lewandowski said: “Yeah, I was feeling
it. I can tell when my shot's there and the guys were getting me open looks.”
Urso was the only Fox Chapel player in double figures. The Foxes
played without 6-foot-4 forward Mike Zappala (15 ppg.), who was out with an
injury. The Tornado enjoyed a 27-18 edge in rebounding.
“We missed Mike's production, but that's not an excuse for losing
this game,” Skrinjar said. “We lost to a good team. I knew they'd be a tough
match-up for us.”
The Foxes (5-5) had a four-game winning streak snapped.
“This was a good tournament for us,” Clement said. “
“The experience should help us down the road.”
BUTLER 59
Damien Pickett 1-1 0-0 2, Kelley Kuharic 0-0 0-0 0, Kaden Rock
0-0 0-0 0, Jace Stutz 2-5 0-0 5, Justice Lewandowski 5-11 1-2 16, Keenan Krause
2-5 0-0 4, Andrew Paterno 3-4 0-0 9, Tyler Frederick 4-7 4-4 12, Jake Anderson
1-1 0-0 2, Joel Stutz 0-1 2-2 2, Mark Gross 3-7 1-3 7. Totals: 21-42 8-11 59.
FOX CHAPEL 41
Brendan Urso 2-6 4-6 9, Tommy Smith 1-3 0-0 3, Dimitri Spina 0-3
0-0 0, Billy Urso 6-13 0-1 16, Jack Lundy 2-4 3-4 7, Josh Dunlap 0-2 0-0 0,
Jake Livingston 0-0 0-0 0, David Brown 3-5 1-2 7, Michael Snowball 0-1 0-0 0,
Wesley Morris 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 14-38 8-12 42.
Fox Chapel11 11 8 12 — 42
3-point goals: Lewandowski 5, Paterno 3, Ja.Stutz; Br.Urso,
B.Urso 4, Smith
JV: