BUTLER TWP — Butler needed a jump start.

Matt Clement provided it on the bench.

Justice Lewandowski provided it on the court. And the Golden Tornado rolled to a 68-50 non-section boys basketball win over Franklin Regional Friday night.

Senior forward Lewandowski scored a career-high 29 points in the contest. For a while, it looked like Butler (12-7) wasn’t going to score at all.

The game was five minutes old before the Golden Tornado scored their first field goal, a baseline jumper by Jace Stutz.

“We started way too slow tonight,” Clement said. “The intensity wasn’t there, especially on offense.

“I don’t like to call early timeouts, but I saw us slipping into bad patterns that have hurt us in the past.”

Franklin Regional (7-12), without a senior in its lineup, built a 20-14 lead midway through the second quarter.

After an offensive rebound and stickback by Tyler Frederck cut the deficit to four, Clement called a timeout with 3:58 left in the half.

“He basically woke us up, told us to start playing harder,” Lewandowski said. “And he was right. We took control of the game after that.”

A couple of quick steals turned into transition buckets for the Tornado. Kaden Rock sank a 3-pointer in the closing seconds and Butler took a 26-25 lead into the locker room.

“Those steals got us rolling and we were able to carry that surge into the second half,” Clement said.

And how.

Butler scored 15 of the first 17 points in the third quarter and the Panthers never got back in the game. Lewandowski scored 22 of his 29 points in the second half, including 13 in the third period.

Lewandowski sank three treys in the second half and drove to the hoop repeatedly.

“He surprised us,” Panthers coach Brad Midgley said. “On film, we saw him spotting up three’s. Tonight, he drove through us.”

“Justice drove to the basket more tonight than he has his entire life,” Clement said. “A kid who works as hard as he does deserves to have a night like this.”

Lewandowski said his coach challenged him that way.

“He told me I had to start being more aggressive in taking the ball to the basket,” Lewandowski said. “They (Franklin Regional) were coming out to contest my three and our other guys were opening space on the floor.

“It was easy to see the open lanes. I just went for it.”

Lewandowski had five rebounds and two steals to go with his point production. Andrew Paterno had 11 points and three assists, Frederick seven points and eight rebounds, Mark Gross eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.

The Tornado had a 35-21 edge in rebounds. Franklin Regional had 18 turnovers to Butler’s nine.

“We were slow on our rotations defensively and were giving them open looks,” Midgley said. “Offensively, we were trying to run some things and stumbled around, running into each other at times.

“Butler’s a good team and they make you pay for that stuff. We’re a young team. We’ll learn from a game like this.”

Simon Behr came off the bench to lead the Panthers with 15 points. Todd Summers had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.

“We did some good things in the loss to North Allegheny that we were able to carry into tonight,” Clement said. “Hopefully, we can carry tonight’s effort into next week, win a couple of games and get these guys into the playoffs.”

FRANKLIN REGIONAL 50

Nick Susich 3-5 0-0 7, Mike Fisch 0-0 1-2 1, Andrew Mastovich 1-2 1-2 3, Todd Summers 3-7 4-7 10, Jake Ross 0-2 2-4 2, Nate Leopold 3-9 0-0 9, Ben Ramey 0-2 1-4 1, Simon Behr 6-8 3-3 15, Hunter Stonecheck 0-1 0-0 0, Nick Mittereder 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 17-37 12-22 50.

BUTLER 68

Damien Pickett 0-0 0-0 0, Kelley Kuharic 0-1 0-0 0, Kaden Rock 1-2 0-0 3, Jace Stutz 2-7 1-2 5, Justice Lewandowski 10-20 6-7 29, Keenan Krause 0-0 1-2 1, Andrew Paterno 4-9 0-0 11, Tyler Frederick 3-7 1-3 7, Jake Anderson 2-3 0-0 4, Joel Stutz 0-0 0-0 0, Eric Hindman 0-0 0-0 0, Connor Ollio 1-1 0-2 2, Mark Gross 3-6 0-2 6. Totals: 26-56 9-18 68.

Franklin Reg. 11 14 7 18 — 50

Butler9 17 22 20 — 68

3-point goals: Susich, Leopold 3; Rock, Lewandowski 3, Paterno 3

JV: Butler, 59-56 (FR: Hunter Stonecheck 16, Simon Behr 12; B: Connor Ollio 16, Kaden Rock 14, Jason Gray 10)

Tuesday: Butler at Central Catholic