So far, so good
By John Enrietto
Eagle Sports Editor
BUTLER TWP — While its final exam is a long way
off,
The Golden Tornado lost much of a 19-point lead in the first half and
all of a 16-point advantage in the second, but rallied to defeat Brashear,
78-66, Tuesday night in their home opener.
“That's a very good basketball team,”
“They are going to give a lot of teams fits this season.”
They started with
The Tornado (3-0) had a 32-13 lead with
Consecutive 3-point field goals by Tyler Frederick and Joel Stutz gave
Deymond Jones capped that rally with consecutive
treys of his own.
“We didn't fall asleep or let up, we just made some bad passes and they
just took off,” Clement said.
Ultimately, the Tornado took care of the ball in the fourth quarter,
made their free throws and came away with the win. After committing 22
turnovers in the first three periods,
Brashear coughed the ball up six times in the final eight minutes.
“I think I saw (point guard) Luke Michalek
grow up during this one game, if that's possible,” Clement said. “He had some
ill-advised passes early, but by the fourth quarter, he was protecting the ball
and controlling the pace of this game.”
Brashear coach Carey White saw it differently.
“The officials had a lot to do with this,” White said. “Just add up the
free throws. You'll get what I'm talking about.”
The inside tandem of Frederick and Connor Ollio
came up big for the Tornado on both ends of the floor.
The duo combined to sink 18 of 19 free throws.
“It was important for us to box out tonight,”
“It's time ... He can have nights like this all of the time,” Clement
said of
Clement said
“That's not including the Nate Snodgrass era,”
he pointed out. “Nate's foul shooting always altered
our team's overall numbers that way.”
Joel Stutz had 17 points and three assists for
“Oillio and Michalek
are sophomores making their first varsity starts at
home tonight. To see them play this well in such a tight game was impressive,”
Clement said.
Jones paced the Bulls with 16 points. Joe Love added 15 points and five
rebounds, Lontae Smith and Mike Zellous
10 points each.
“They made a lot of plays,” White said of
“I like where we're at, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Clement
said. “We're young and we're making a lot of mistakes.
“There's plenty of room for improvement.”
BRASHEAR 66
Lontae Smith 4-9 0-2 10, Daasaun
Jackson 4-8 0-0 9, Tyler Pinkston 2-6 1-2 6, Joe Love 5-15 4-5 15, Deymond Jones 5-8 3-5 126, Nigel Franklin 0-0 0-0 0, Mike Zellous 4-8 2-2 10.
Totals: 24-54 10-16 66.
Damien Pickett 0-0 0-00, Kaden Rock 1-2 2-2 4,
Luke Michalek 3-4 3-6 11, Kelley Kuharic
0-0 0-0 0, Jace Stutz 1-5
4-4 7, Jason Gray 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Frederick 6-14 8-9
21, Connor Ollio 4-6 10-10 18, Joel Stutz 6-12 3-7
17, Jefferson Ford 0-3 0-0 0. Totals: 21-46 30-38 78.
Brashear 10 18 23 15— 66
Butler18 20 18 22— 78
3-point goals: Smith 2,