Butler boys basketball beats Pine-Richland on Tayt Lucas’ buzzer-beater

February 04, 2025 Last Updated: February 04, 2025 10:55 PM Sports

PINE TWP — Tayt Lucas saw an opening and took it.

And Butler took the victory.

The Golden Tornado senior guard took a feed from teammate Kyle Casteel on an inbounds play in the frontcourt, cut and drove in from the foul line, laying the ball in the basket just before the buzzer to give Butler a 47-46 WPIAL Section 1-6A boys basketball win at Pine-Richland.

“We’re usually a good shooting team, and we didn’t shoot all that well tonight,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “We usually rebound well, and we didn’t tonight. Our mantra this year has been just find a way. These guys keep doing that.”

Butler (14-6, 7-6) had a 20-14 lead late in the first half, only to watch the Rams go on a 16-0 run to grab a 30-20 advantage midway through the third quarter.

“I wasn’t panicking at that point ... but I didn’t feel comfortable, either,” Clement said.

Stainton Forbes stuck back a couple of offensive rebounds and laid in another shot as the Tornado pulled within 33-29 by quarter’s end. A Lucas trey tied the game with 3:50 to go, and an Andrew Gettinger triple gave Butler a 43-42 lead with 2:43 left.

Down by three points, Pine-Richland knotted the game at 45 on an Emery Maye trey with 1:48 to play. The Rams then got the ball back.

“From that point, we’d executed everything the way we wanted to ... except for the final two seconds,” Rams coach Bob Petcash said.

The hosts ran the clock down to 7.4 seconds, the time remaining when Maye was fouled while shooting a jumper. He missed the first free throw and made the second.

“We had fouls to give, so we fouled (Butler) when they got across midcourt with 4.9 seconds left,” Petcash said. “That’s exactly what we wanted. We still had two fouls to give.”

Unfortunately for the hosts, they didn’t give either one.

Clement said the final play was supposed to go outside to Andrew Gettinger, but the guard was too far away from the ball. Instead, Casteel took the inbounds and flipped it to Lucas, who made the game-winning bucket.

“We have a lot of guys who can score the ball,” Lucas said. “Our original play out of the timeout was for Getty (Gettinger) to get the ball, then drive it or kick it back out. When that wasn’t there, my teammates had enough confidence in me to make a play, just like I have confidence in them.

“We play for each other.”

Clement admitted: “I was surprised they didn’t foul.”

So was Petcash.

“I probably said ‘go for the ball and foul’ 83,000 times in the huddle before that last play,” Petcash said. “We made a mental mistake, and it cost us the game. We didn’t finish.”

Lucas led Butler with 15 points. He said he had “no idea what their (Rams) foul situation was. I wasn’t paying attention to that.”

Forbes had 14 points and 14 rebounds; Gettinger finished with 10 points, eight boards and three assists.

Grant Spacciapolli came off the bench on Pine-Richland’s Senior Night to score 14 points for the Rams. Alex Kastner scored 11 off the bench while Maye had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists. Neither team turned the ball over more than eight times.

“I’m just so proud of this team — and happy for Tayt,” Clement said. “Great senior moment for him.”

BUTLER 47

Ayden Andrews 1-3 1-2 3, Jace Graztmiller 0-1 0-0 0, Stainton Forbes 6-15 2-2 14, Mavrik Clement 0-1 0-0 0, Kyle Casteel 2-3 0-0 5, Tayt Lucas 6-13 0-0 15, Andrew Gettinger 4-12 0-4 10. Totals: 19-47 3-8 47.

PINE-RICHLAND 46

Eli Wentz 1-6 0-0 2, Emery Maye 3-10 3-4 10, Nathan Natali 1-6 0-0 3, Alex Bywalski 0-0 0-0 0, Julian Hansel 3-4 0-0 6, Zach Kenny 0-3 0-0 0, Grant Spacciapolli 6-13 0-0 14, Alex Kastner 4-9 0-0 11, Eli Catalano 0-3 0-0 0. Totals: 18-54 3-4 46.

Butler 8 12 9 18 - 47

Pine-Richland 7 11 15 13 - 46

3-point goals: Butler 6 (Casteel, Lucas 3, Gettinger 2), Pine-Richland 7 (Maye, Spacciapolli 2, Kastner 3, Natali)

JV: Butler, 48-41 (B: Jayden Wilbert 15, Cael Hanley 13; P-R: Ryan Craven 9)