Tornado falls in overtime
BUTLER TWP — Ben DiNucci can make plays in basketball, too.
Pine-Richland's senior quarterback, who guided the Rams to the state championship football game last week, drained a buzzer-beating trey at the end of regulation Friday night at Butler.
The Rams rode that sudden momentum to a 66-58 overtime Section 3-AAAA victory over the previously unbeaten Golden Tornado.
“It's going to take a while for me to get this one out of my head,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “The kids worked so hard to get themselves in that position at the end.
“We played pretty good defense right up until that play. There was a scramble, the kid got loose ... I don't even want to talk about it anymore.”
Butler (5-1, 2-1) trailed by seven with 2:24 left in the third quarter before putting together a 16-5 run to take a 50-46 lead with 3:28 to play.
The Rams battled back for a 51-50 lead on a pair of free throws by freshman Phil Jurkovec with 1:39 left. The Tornado responded again, Mark Gross hitting a short jumper and a subsequent steal by Andrew Paterno setting up Tyler Frederick for a layup.
Those plays gave Butler a 54-51 edge, setting up DiNucci's heroics.
DiNucci did not start the game for Pine-Richland (5-1, 1-1), but wound up with 19 points, seven rebounds and four treys. He practiced with the basketball team for two days and made his season debut Friday.
“The kid is a winner, a flat-out winner,” Rams coach Jeff Ackermann said. “That's all I can say about him.
“That last shot was supposed to go to Andrew Petcash, but it wasn't there for him. Ben was to set a screen on that set play. He rolled out of it and got free.”
Pine-Richland outplayed the Tornado in overtime, hitting all eight of its free throws. Alex Goetz, a junior guard, sank two field goals in the extra session. The Rams scored the first six points in overtime. Layups by Frederick and Justice Lewandowsdki pulled the Tornado within 60-58 before Pine-Richand sank all six of its free throws in the final 38 seconds to put the game away.“We faced a lot of adversity tonight,” Ackermann said. “We got in foul trouble, gave up a lead ... But any way you can win on the road in this section, you take it, no matter how ugly it looks.”Frederick scored a career-high 28 points for Butler, adding nine rebounds and three assists. Lewandowski had eight points and four assists, Gross eight points and a pair of steals.“Frederick runs the floor well and he was tough for us to handle,” Ackermann said. “We gave up a lot of fouls trying to stop him.”Frederick shrugged off his personal performance.“I'm no different from the other guys on this team,” he said. “I should have gotten a few more rebounds, I missed a couple of bad shots I shouldn't have taken in overtime ... I made as many mistakes as anyone.“But, yeah, we're confident we'll bounce back from this.”Two Pine-Richland players —Charlie Tortorice and Adam Alexander — fouled out. The Rams only used seven players as forward Anthony Battaglia isn't back yet from football and center Joe Knapp is out with an injury.Goetz had 15 points, Jurkovec 15 points and three steals, but DiNucci carried the night for the Rams.“I was worried about him all day,” Clement said. “Players who are that good at another sport usually don't need much time to get ready. They're competitors.“This is a disappointing loss, but we have to pick ourselves up, go into North Allegheny (Tuesday) and try to do what Pine-Richland did to us tonight.”PINE-RICHLAND 66Adam Alexander 2-3 1-2 6, Andrew Petcash 3-9 3-4 9, Alex Goetz 6-11 2-2 15, Phil Jurkovec 5-9 5-6 15, Charlie Tortorice 1-2 0-0 2, Paul Nussbaum 0-2 0-0 0, Ben DiNucci 6-8 3-4 19. Totals: 23-44 14-18 66.BUTLER 58Damien Pickett 0-1 0-2 0, Kaden Rock 0-0 0-0 0, Jace Stutz 0-1 0-0 0, Justice Lewandowski 3-7 2-3 8, Keenan Krause 1-5 2-2 4, Andrew Paterno 2-9 0-0 6, Tyler Frederick 12-15 4-5 28, Jake Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Joel Stutz 1-2 0-0 2, Eric Hindman 1-2 0-1 2, Mark Gross 2-2 4-6 8. Totals: 22-44 12-19 58.Pine-Richland 15 11 16 12 12 — 66Butler10 11 19 14 4 — 583-point goals: Alexander, Goitz, DiNucci 4; Paterno 2JV: Pine-Richland, 61-57 (P-R: Marty Kenny 19, Nolan Rush 16; B: Connor Ollio 18, Cade Negley 10Tuesday: Butler at North Allegheny
