The season is officially underway for the Butler Golden Tornado boys’ basketball team. They reached the championship game of the Ambridge Tip-Off Tournament, only to find themselves on the wrong end of a 75-64 overtime final. Butler led 26-22 at the half only to see the eventual champion Cornell Raiders take a 43-38 lead into the fourth. The game continued with its back and forth mentality when Butler’s leading scorer Bob Freshwater (20 points) hit his third trey of the evening to tie up the score at 57 and send the game into an extra session. Unfortunately for Butler, they were outscored by the Raiders 18-7 in overtime leading to their first loss of the young season. The other double-digit scorer for the Tornado was Tyrell Sales who had 19 points and 16 rebounds.
In order to have reached the tournament finale, Butler defeated the Quaker Valley Quakers 63-54 the evening prior. Butler led in this one 29-14 at the intermission, only to see QV rally late in the fourth quarter. Butler was led by Sales with 28 points and 18 boards. Freshwater scored 11, Jarrod Markle had 10, and Dan Andreassi put in 9 points for the blue ‘n gold. At the conclusion of the tournament, Sales was announced as the Tournament MVP, while Freshwater made the All-Tournament Team.
Butler went 46 for 62 from the foul line in Week 1.