BUTLER TWP — New season, new team.

New attitude.

Seneca Valley had it all on display Friday night in the Butler gym, taking advantage of foul-plagued Butler to build a big lead early, then withstanding a Golden Tornado rally for an 87-81 boys basketball section win.

The loss ended streaks of 19 successive wins overall and 12 consecutive section wins for defending WPIAL 6A champion Butler.

“They have a phenomenal program and we have so much respect for them,” SV coach Kevin Trost said of Butler. “They are well-coached and they have great players.”

But this was the Raiders' night.

With guards Raine Gratzmiller and Mattix Clement, along with center Charlie Kreinbucher, on the bench with foul trouble for Butler early in the second quarter, SV exploded.

A 15-0 run gave the Raiders (3-2, 2-1) a 54-31 lead with 52 seconds left in the first half. Eight of those points came from the foul line and Cole Brooks sank one of his seven treys during the run.

“Mattix, Raine and Charlie had a combined eight fouls with six minutes left in the half,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “I've never seen that happen to us before.

“But the refs didn't lose this game. Butler lost this game. We didn't execute our game-plan very well.”

Trailing by 22 at halftime and saddled with 14 first-half turnovers, Butler (2-1, 0-1) made a run in the third quarter. Consecutive Devin Carney treys pulled the Tornado within 64-54 with 1:21 left in that period.

Trost quickly called a timeout.

“I just told our guys to relax,” he said. “We're playing a different style of game this year, much more aggressive. Butler was able to slow us down in the third quarter.

“We had to get back to playing our game. We got into a good flow offensively and that contributed to their foul trouble.”

Brooks drained a trey at the end of the third quarter. Connor Lyczek scored layups on three consecutive SV possessions in the fourth as the Raiders rebuilt their lead.

When Ben Hicks hit a trey with 1:25 to play, the Raider lead was 85-69 and the issue was decided. Butler went on a quick run late, but ran out of time.

“We're attacking the hoop a lot and that can cause teams to foul us,” Lyczek said. “I thought we found the open lanes well tonight.”

Brooks had 29 points and five rebounds for the Raiders. Lyczek contributed 24 points, seven rebounds, four steals and four assists. Luke Lawson tallied nine points, five rebounds and five assists, Hicks 10 points.

“Playing a fast-paced team early in the season can be tough,” Clement said. “Their aggressiveness gave us a tough time.”

The Raiders sank 18 of 19 shots from the foul line.

“That's surprising because we had been struggling from the line,” Lyczek said.

Devin Carney paced Butler with 33 points. Gratzmiller added 17 points, four rebounds and three assists and Kreinbucher had 10 rebounds.

“That Kreinbucher is a beast,” Trost said. “He is hard to handle underneath. We had to rebound as a team and we did that.”

Seneca Valley had a 34-30 edge on the boards. Butler finished with 19 turnovers — only five in the second half — but the 23-point deficit in the first half proved too much to overcome.

“We missed a lot of layups tonight,” Clement said. “Their defense allowed us to get to the basket, but we shot when we should have passed, passed when we should have shot ... that's a good recipe for defeat.”

The Raiders won four games all of last season. They have three wins already this season.

“Definite confidence-builder,” Lyczek said. “We had lost our last two. Beating the WPIAL champs on their floor is something we should be able to get a lot of momentum from.”

SENECA VALLEY 87

Connor Lyczek 8-11 8-8 24, Cole Brooks 10-21 2-2 29, Luke Lawson 4-11 1-2 9, Jameson Grieco 2-7 0-0 5, Aiden Lyczek 3-3 0-0 6, Ben Hicks 3-4 3-3 10, Caiden Oros 0-2 0-0 0, Beaux Lizewski 0-2 4-4 4. Totals: 30-60 18-19 87.

BUTLER 81

Raine Gratzmiller 7-11 1-1 17, Devin Carney 11-26 7-8 33, Mattix Clement 3-7 0-0 7, Colin Patterson 0-3 1-4 1, Charlie Kreinbucher 3-7 0-0 6, Madden Clement 3-4 0-0 9, David Leslie 3-8 0-1 7, Kaleb Proudfoot 0-0 0-0 0, Derek Butterworth 0-1 1-2 1, Lance Slater 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 30-68 10-17 81.

Seneca Valley 25 31 11 20 — 87

Butler19 15 20 27 — 81

3-point goals: Brooks 7, Grieco, Hicks; Gratzmiller 2, Carney 4, Mat.Clement, Mad.Clement 3, Leslie

JV: Seneca Valley, 65-54 (SV: Jamesion Grieco 23, Andrew Roy 11; B: CJ Singleton 14)

Saturday: Butler at Knoch

Tuesday: Upper St. Clair at Seneca Valley