CHURCHILL — A little extra work this time of year is not so bad, but for the Butler boys basketball team, it has not been so good.

In a week of tough losses, the Tornado added yet another one to the string when host Woodland Hills came away with a hard-fought 57-56 double-overtime victory on Saturday.

The Wolverines' Ronald Flowers' outside jumper beat the buzzer in regulation to force overtime. Woodland Hills scored the first four points in both overtimes, only to have the Tornado bounce back to tie the game.

In the end, a free throw by Flowers with 28.7 seconds remaining accounted for the difference.

He would miss a pair of free throws with 13.8 seconds left, giving Butler one last shot, but Cody Fleeger's driving layup with a defender in tow missed the rim to end the game.

Butler had lost a 65-64 decision to North Allegheny on Jan. 4, then followed with a 62-54 overtime defeat to New Castle this past Tuesday.

"We battled back," said Butler coach Joe Lewandowski. "We were down by four (twice) and came back, but give (Woodland Hills) credit. They did a nice job and we did a nice job.

"You have to ask yourself 'did you give yourself a chance to win the game?' and we did,"Lewandowski added.

"After losing a tough game to Central Catholic (Friday night), we wanted to come back and play hard," said Woodland Hills coach Aaron Tipton.

"Like we preach to the kids, 'As long as you play hard, good things will happen, and if anything else, you'll feel good about how you played.'" Tipton added.

The loss offset the play of Butler's Cody Fleeger, who scored a game-high 27 points — including six 3-pointers.

Fleeger scored Butler's first nine points on treys, had four in the first quarter and accounted for 14 of Butler's first 16 points.

"He was nuts," laughed Tipton. "When you have a kid who can shoot like that ... we had to go to a zone and that seemed to slow him — and Butler — a little bit."

Fleeger's fourth 3-pointer of the game with 2:57 left in the first quarter allowed Butler (9-6) to enjoy a 16-13 lead.

But Tipton's switch to the zone worked out perfectly, as the Wolverines (4-13) went on a 13-3 run — seven from Flowers — to take a 26-19 lead with 4:06 left before halftime.

With Woodland Hills holding a 33-26 lead early in the third quarter, Butler scored the next six points, culminated by another Fleeger 3-pointer, to make it a one-point game with 2:47 left in the frame.

"That's typical of the way he plays," said Lewandowski.

"I've just been shooting good lately," said Fleeger.

The Tornado retook the lead 42-41 on a 3-pointer, this time from Nick Rossmiller, with four minutes remaining in regulation.

A three-point play by Noah Taylor 17 seconds later shifted the lead back to the Wolverines.

Jeff Slater tied the game with 3:14 left, but Flowers sank two of three free throws to give Woodland Hills a 46-44 lead.

Slater would continue the Tornado scoring down the stretch, sinking 4-of-6 free throws, the latter two with 25.8 seconds left to give Butler a 48-46 lead.

Flowers, however, drove down the right side, then hit a fallaway jumper at the buzzer that was just inside the 3-point line.

In the first overtime, Butler trailed 52-48 before Fleeger scored with 1:56 left, then Rossmiller scored with 1:04 remaining to tie the game.

Corley White and Nick Dizon each missed a pair of free throws inside the final minute that would have given Woodland Hills the lead.

In the second overtime, Joe Lofton scored and added a pair of free throws to give Woodland Hills a 56-52 lead with 1:39 left. White could have extended the lead, but missed two free throws with 1:05 left.

Slater scored on a driving layup in front with 53 seconds left. Following a Butler timeout, Slater stole the inbounds pass, passed to a streaking Logan Renwick to the basket and Butler scored an easy lay-up to make it 56-all with 47.1 seconds left.

Butler, however, was unsuccessful in its final two trips down the floor to take the lead.

The loss was the Tornado's third straight after opening the season by winning nine of 12.

Lewandowski hopes it's just a matter of time before things start turning around.

"It's just a matter of perseverance," said Lewandowski. "Every game is its own entity. You create luck, you create opportunities."

"They're better than their record," said Fleeger. "We just have to find a way to win these close games."

Notes: Snodgrass, Rossmiller and Slater all fouled out of the game as did Taylor for the Wolverines ... Woodland Hills missed 19 of its 30 free-throw attempts.

BUTLER 56Jeff Slater 2 5-8 9, Cody Fleeger 8 5-6 27, Austin Snodgrass 1 1-3 3, Nick Rossmiller 4 0-0 9, Ryan Melder 2 0-0 4, Logan Renwick 1 0-0 2, Jeff Tompkins 0 0-0 0, Christos Klutinoty 0 0-0 0, Nick Powers 1 0-0 2.

Totals: 19 11-17 56.

WOODLAND HILLS 57Nick Dizon 4 5-10 13, Ronald Flowers 4 3-7 12, Noah Taylor 2 1-1 5, Dave Caparosa 6 0-4 12, Corley White 5 0-4 11, Joe Lofton 1 2-4 4, Brian McGuigan 0 0-0 0, Mark Bagnato 0 0-0 0, Christian Williams 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 22 11-30 57.

Butler 16 8 10 14 4 4—56Woodland Hills 17 13 7 11 4 5—573-point goals: Fleeger 6, Rossmiller; Flowers, White

JV: Butler, 38-24 (B:David Schmidt 8; WH: Dahrayl Smith 9)

Tuesday: Butler at North Hills