BUTLER TWP — Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic’s start to the 2015-16 boys basketball season hardly looked promising.

Losses by 32 points to Mars, 21 points to Penn Hills and 25 points to Gateway were soon compounded by an 0-5 record.

The losing didn’t last.

The Trojans (14-8) wound up winning their first section title since 2009 and ended the regular season with a 54-49 win at Butler Monday night. CWNC won 12 of its final 13 games.

“We took some beatings by bigger schools early in the year. It feels good to beat one of them here at the end,” Trojans coach Dave Long admitted.

“We don’t have the height or athleticism of Butler. We can’t match up with them in a game up and down the floor. We had to take the air out of the ball a little bit.”

The strategy worked.

The Golden Tornado’s (15-7) only lead all night was 2-0. CWNC scored 12 of the game’s next 14 points to seize control.

Butler trailed by as many as 12 and got as close as 48-44 on a Kelley Kuharic trey with 1:14 remaining. But the Trojans sank all six of their free throws in the final 54 seconds to hold on to the win.

“You can’t say this about us very often, but we weren’t ready to play tonight,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “They wanted this game worse than we did.

“To play like this on Senior Night ... It was a lackluster performance. I call it embarrassing. All due respect to North Catholic because they played well, but our play was pathetic.”

Butler recognized seniors Kuharic, Damien Pickett and Kaden Rock before the game.

Tristan Newcamp paced CWNC with 20 points, primarily on lay-ups. Austin Sieminski had 12 points and six rebounds and Vinnie DiNicola came off the bench to score nine points.

The Trojans sank 20 of 33 shots from the floor for 60 percent. They hit 10 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter.

“We finished strong,” Long said. “We forced Butler to play North Catholic basketball tonight instead of Butler basketball.

“We were patient offensively and got the shots we wanted.”

The Tornado, on the other hand, shot just 33 percent in the second half and collected only six rebounds in the first half. Butler missed seven of 10 free throw attempts in the final quarter to stifle its own comeback attempt.

“When you’re not working hard and not playing frantically, you don’t get into rhythm at the free throw line, either,” Clement said. “That all goes together.”

Tyler Frederick paced the Tornado with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Luke Michalek produced 10 points and three assists off the bench.

“Most of this game, Tyler was rebounding the ball himself against four guys,” Clement said. “Our effort just wasn’t there tonight.”

Both teams will learn their respective WPIAL playoff opponents at tonight’s meeting in Green Tree.

“I like the way we’re playing right now,” Long said. “I feel like we can compete against anybody in Single-A.”

Butler was held to fewer than 50 points Monday for only the second time all season. The Tornado average 65 points per game.

“Am I worried about this? No,” Clement said. “Our guys are pretty salty in there about the way we played tonight. Sometimes things happen and you don’t know why.

“We’ll be ready to go for our next one. I’m confident of that.”

CW NORTH CATHOLIC 54

Zach Offi 2-5 0-1 4, Tristan Newcamp 9-11 2-3 20, Austin Sieminski 6-7 0-0 12, Dom Serventi 0-0 0-0 0, Isaiah Wilson 0-2 4-6 4, Kenny Fukon 1-5 2-2 5, Vinnie DiNicola 2-3 4-5 9, John Fukon 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-33 12-17 54.

BUTLER 49

Ian McCarrier 0-0 0-0 0, Damien Pickett 1-1 0-0 2, Kaden Rock 2-10 0-0 6, Luke Michalek 3-8 2-2 10, Kelley Kuharic 2-5 0-3 6, Jace Stutz 1-6 0-0 2, Tyler Frederick 7-8 0-1 14, Connor Ollio 2-4 1-5 5, Joel Stutz 2-5 0-0 4, Jefferson Ford 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 20-48 3-11 49.

CW North Cath. 14 13 13 14 — 54

Butler7 12 13 17 — 49

3-point goals: K.Fukon, DiNicola; Rock 2, Michalek 2, Kuharic 2

JV: CWNC, 52-44 (CWNC: John Fukon 11, B: Andrew Yonker 13, Jason Gray 11)