BEAVER FALLS — For more than three quarters, Butler took Beaver Falls out of its game.

Then the Tigers sank a pair of 3-pointers and took over the game, scoring 19 points in the final four minutes to post a 63-53 boys basketball victory Friday night.

Beaver Falls (10-7) averages 71 points per game. The Tigers had only 42 midway through the fourth quarter.

"Everybody plays a zone against us,"Beaver Falls coach Doug Biega said. "Butler's was effective because they are an aggressive, physical team that plays basketball the way it's supposed to be played.

"Once we got ahead by a few points, they had to extend their defense a little bit and we were able to get to the basket."

The lead changed hands seven times Friday night. The score was tied seven times as well — the last time at 42 when Sean Lowry laid in a shot with 5:13 remaining in the contest.

Todd Thomas, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard, responded for Beaver Falls with a layup of his own off a fast break. Thomas drained a 3-pointer on the Tigers' next possession.

David Phillips, a 6-3 junior guard, stuck back an offensive rebound and hit a trey of his own. The latter shot gave Beaver Falls a 52-44 edge with 2:54 to play.

"We had to come out and try to pressure the ball, and that's a tough team to do that against,"Butler coach Joe Lewandowski said. "They have so many athletes. We got here early and saw nine of their guys dunk the ball during practice.

"Phillips is their best player and we did a good job on him. Some of their other guys hurt us."

Phillips was limited to three points in the first three quarters before scoring 13 in the fourth period. Kenny Cottman had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Tigers while Thomas added 18 points.

Beaver Falls won its sixth straight game. The Tigers won the PIAAClass AAchampionship in 2005 — their third title since 1970. They've won seven WPIALtitles since 1970 as well.

"This is Beaver Falls. You're expected to at least play for a championship,"Biega said. "But we had to be realistic this season. We graduated 3,500 points last year.

"It took about 10 games for us to hit our stride and start jelling as a team, but it's happening."

Lance Jeter, Beaver Falls' all-time scoring leader with 2,243 points, is a freshman on the University of Cincinnati football team. Jack Anderson, a 1,000-point scorer for the Tigers, is averaging 7.1 points per game as a freshman on the Carnegie Mellon University basketball team this season.

"There's so much history in this gym and they're still a great basketball team,"Lewandowski said. "But we had our chances to win this game."

Mike Pratkanis scored 10 points in the game's first five minutes as the Golden Tornado (8-10) shot out to a 17-8 lead. Pratkanis picked up his second foul and went to the bench.

While Pratkanis was sitting, Beaver Falls used an 11-0 run to grab a 19-17 lead. Butler did not score again until Pratkanis rejoined the lineup and Jace Lumley hit a 3-pointer with 4:05 left in the half.

The lead went back and forth from there until Beaver Falls pulled away in the final four minutes. The Tornado scoring drought lasted 6 minutes and 55 seconds.

"They had no answer for Mike early,"Lewandowski said. "They put their best defender on Sean and that left Mike open to make some plays."

Lowry paced Butler with 18 points and 11 rebounds. He scored 10 of his points in the fourth quarter. Pratkanis scored 13 points, all in the first half, and fouled out with 2:44 left.

Aaron Dorondo came off the bench to grab six rebounds for the Tornado while Pratkanis had five boards. Butler had a 27-25 edge on the glass, but had 20 turnovers to the Tigers' 12.

The Tornado had seven turnovers in the fourth quarter.

"They forced us into some mistakes, but I liked what I saw tonight,"Lewandowski said. "We got everything we wanted to from this game except the win."

BUTLER53Mike Pratkanis 5-8 2-2 13, Aaron Dorondo 2-4 0-3 4, Cody Fleeger 3-8 1-2 8, Jace Lumley 1-3 0-0 3, Brian Deangelis 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan Melder 1-2 0-0 2, Sean Lowry 8-17 2-3 18, Clark Liebler 0-0 5-6 5. Totals: 20-43 10-16 53

BEAVERFALLS63Todd Thomas 7-17 3-6 18, David Phillips 3-11 9-10 16, Kendall Dreher 0-0 2-2 2, Brock VanLier 2-3 0-0 5, Brandon Rue 0-0 0-1 0, Kenny Cottman 8-10 2-2 18, Kevin Nesmith 0-1 0-0 0, Steve Fox 2-4 0-0 4. Totals: 22-46 16-22 63

Butler 17 9 8 19—53Beaver Falls 12 11 15 25—633-point goals: Pratkanis, Fleeger, Lumley; Thomas, Phillips, VanLier

JV: Beaver Falls, 65-61 (B-Zach Cuffman 18, David Schmidt 16; BF-Dak Mobley 19, Kevin Nesmith 11)

Tuesday: North Hills atButler