Bizarre buzzer-beater
Frederick's last-second trey lifts Butler over Fox Chapel

By John Enrietto 
Eagle Sports Editor 

FOX CHAPEL — This rainbow found the pot of gold. 
Tyler Frederick's high arching 3-point shot at the buzzer found nothing but net Monday night, handing Butler a bizarre 67-65 boys basketball win over Fox Chapel at the Peter Sauer Memorial Holiday Tournament being played at Shady Side Academy. 
The Golden Tornado (6-3) play games tonight and Wednesday in the round-robin event, but it will be tough to beat Monday's show. 
“Crazy things happen out there sometimes,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “It's good to land on the right side of this one.” 
Though the lead changed hands seven times in the game, the Tornado trailed for most of the contest. Butler fought back from an 11-point deficit in the first quarter to take a two-point lead at halftime. 
Butler trailed 58-48 with 5:10 remaining before rallying to tie the game at 64 on Connor Ollio's three-point play with 1:39 to go. 
“Good pass from Damien (Pickett) there and Connor made a good catch with a lot of people around him,” Clement said. 
Still, it appeared Butler was doomed to defeat.  
Fox Chapel (1-7) held the ball for the remaining time before point guard Brendon Urso was fouled driving to the basket with 8.1 seconds left. Urso sank the first of two free throws, Frederick snaring the rebound on the second shot. 
Frederick drove the length of the floor, then threw an errant pass toward the right corner. The ball sailed out of bounds with 2.6 seconds to play. 
“Tyler should have gone to the basket there, get the contact and the foul,” Clement said. “I didn't like the decision there.” 
Frederick would make up for it. 
The Foxes' in-bounds pass — an attempted lob down the court — was deflected and fell into the hands of Butler's Kaden Rock at midcourt. The Tornado called timeout witjh 0.6 seconds on the clock. 
“That's not the play we called there,” Fox Chapel coach Zachary Skrinjar said. “I just wanted to get the ball in-bounds and make them foul us. 
“Our kid saw something else ... If the ball isn't tipped as he's throwing it in, his idea probably works.” 
Clement wanted the official to put more time on the clock. That didn't happen. 
Frederick's miracle shot did. 
Ollio was in-bounding the ball at midcourt. 
“We had a play set up for Kaden Rock to take the last shot, but he was covered,” Ollio said. “I heard Coach yelling 'Tyler, Tyler,' and I saw Tyler's man was playing off him.” 
Ollio delivered the ball to Frederick, who turned and fired a jumper through the net for the win. 
“They only had one guy on Tyler and nothing else was open,” Clement said. “I credit Connor for making the right choice on that play.” 
Frederick's trey was his second of the game. He had 16 points and 14 rebounds in the contest. 
“I knew I had no time, so I tried to square up as best I could before I caught the pass,” Frederick said. “The way the guy was sagging off me, I figured I might be getting the ball. 
“Just get it and fire it up, hope to God it goes in. The guy closed on me pretty quick. I thought he was going to block it.” 
The loss was Fox Chapel's fourth by four or fewer points this season. 
“I don't know how it's possible to do what he did,” Skrinjar said of Frederick's shot. “A turnaround jumper in less than a second? He made the shot and the officials counted it. We have to live with it.” 
Ollio paced Butler with 20 points. Rock had 13 points and three assists. 
Mike Zappala paced Fox Chapel with 17 points. Jake Livingston had 14 points, four rebounds and three assists, Urso 13 points, six rebounds and six assists. 
“A win like this can be a season-changer. A loss like this can be the same thing,” Clement said. “We came back from double-digit defiicits twice, in the first game of a round-robin holiday tournament. 
“We didn't play particularly well tonight. But this shows we're playing with heart.” 
Ollio agreed. 
“We played a bad first half and we didn't want to lose a third straight game,” Ollio said. “We came back and got this one.”  
FOX CHAPEL 65 
Brendon Urso 5-9 2-5 13, Thomas Smith 1-1 1-4 3, Jake Livingston 6-11 2-2 14, Mike Zappala 6-10 4-9 17, Dimitri Spina 1-1 0-0 2, Carson Cohen 4-6 0-0 9, Mike Snowball 2-3 0-1 4, Marvin Dusabe 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Kelly 1-1 0-0 3, Michael Marsico 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 26-42 9-21 65. 
BUTLER 67 
Damien Pickett 0-0 0-0 0, Kaden Rock 4-10 2-2 13, Luke Michalek 1-4 2-2 4, Kelley Kuharic 1-4 0-0 3, Jace Stutz 2-4 0-0 6, Tyler Frederick 4-13 6-8 16, Connor Ollio 7-10 6-6 20, Joel Stutz 2-10 0-0 5, Jefferson Ford 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-55 16-18 67. 
Fox Chapel 21 12 18 14 — 65 
Butler10 25 8 24 — 67 
3-point goals: Urso, Zappala, Cohen, Kelly; Rock 3, Kuharic, Ja.Stutz 2, Frederick 2, Jo.Stutz 
JV: Fox Chapel, 51-41 (FC: Ben Kelly 12, Elias Danos 11, B: Andrew Yonker 12, Ian McCarrier 11)