Butler drops Summit, will play Jeannette in final
BUTLER TWP — The Golden Tornado have won five Butler Christmas boys basketball tournaments.
They must go through the defending PIAAClass AAchampions tonight to extend that streak to six.
Butler (4-5) forced 36 turnovers while running away from Summit Academy for a 59-36 win in the first round Monday night. Defending state champion Jeannette (7-2) reeled off its seventh straight win, defeating Knoch 58-47.
The Jayhawks played without Jordan Hall, their leading scorer at 25 points per game, who sat on the bench with an illness.
"He was popping in 3-pointers pretty good at halftime,"Butler coach Joe Lewndowski said. "I have a feeling we're going to see him. Honestly, I hope we do.
"This is going to be the biggest test we've had in our tournament since we faced Aliquippa and Herbert Pope."
That was in 2004, when the Tornado came away with a 64-49 victory.
Butler had little trouble with Summit Academy (3-5) in the opening round, jumping out to a 10-0 lead and a 27-11 advantage by halftime. The Knights missed five shots and turned the ball over eight times before getting on the scoreboard.
"Our kids just got back from a five-day home pass and I doubt they played much basketball during that break,"Knights coach Cliff Guy said. "It's going to take us a little while to get our basketball legs back."
Butler's lead peaked at 52-24 with 6:58 left in the game.
Keith Banichar, Summit's leading scorer at 13 points per game, sank just three of 14 shots from the floor. Jalik Peay led the Knights with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Summit Academy did hold a 40-28 edge in rebounding.
"Way too many turnovers,"Guy said. "We just made too many mistakes."
Struggling of late offensively, Butler turned up the defensive pressure in hopes of getting more possessions.
"That definitely worked for us,"Lewandowski said. "We had more possessions tonight than in any game we've played this year."
Freshman point guard Nate Snodgrass scored 12 points, had six steals and three assists for the Tornado. Jeff Tompkins added 12 points and five steals. Bobby Swartwout came off the bench to lead Butler with six rebounds.
"Nate has really been coming on. That's why he's back in the starting lineup,"Lewandowski said. "We believe he's ready to lead this team as our point guard."
<B>Jeannette 58, Knoch 47 — </B>Even without Hall, who is headed to Ohio State on a football scholarship, the Jayhawks never trailed against Knoch.Jeannette scored the first seven points of the game and led by as many as 14 at 54-40 with 3:36 to play."We had plenty of chances to get close on the scoreboard, but we didn't finish well offensively or we gave up a steal,"Knoch coach Chris Andreassi said."Our biggest concern coming into this game was their ability to score in transition. That's how they get most of their points."Knoch had only 15 turnovers, but six occurred in the fourth period.Layups by Michael Gallagher and Jake McTighe pulled the Knights (4-5) within 47-40 with 7:23 remaining, but Knoch didn't score another point for nearly five minutes."We were getting back OKdefensively, but when their guards steal the ball in the backcourt and take off the other way ... there's not much you can do,"Andreassi said.Jeannette coach Jim Nesser called timeouts one minute apart early in the second quarter."The first was because they were jumping our pass routes. I guess they scouted us well,"Nesser said. "The second was not a strategy session. I didn't talk any X's and O's. I wasn't happy with our effort."The Jayhawks had a 14-12 lead at the time of the second timeout. They went on a 12-2 run immediately afterward.Harris Moziah, one of two returning starters from last year, paced Jeannette with 17 points and had five rebounds. Greg Williams came off the bench to score 12 points while Cameron Baradzeij, the team's sixth man last year, had 11 points.Dane Vaughn had 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.Gallagher paced the Knights with 14 points. McTighe had 13 points, Andrew Wirtz 12 and Micah Lio a team-high seven rebounds.Four players reached the finals of the 3-point shooting contest and will compete for that award tonight:Snodgrass and David Schmidt of Butler, Williams of Jeannette and Wirtz of Knoch.<B>JEANNETTE 58Darius Brown 2-3 0-0 5, Cameron Baradzeij 5-11 0-0 11, Lamar Grant 0-2 0-0 0, Dane Vaughn 5-10 0-0 10, Harris Moziah 8-13 1-2 17, Greg Williams 4-9 2-2 12, Brian Weightman 1-2 1-2 3. </B>Totals: 25-50 4-6 58<B>KNOCH 47Michael Gallagher 6-16 0-0 14, Andrew Wirtz 5-7 0-0 12, Chris Cetnar 2-6 0-0 4, Jake McTighe 5-12 3-4 13, Michah Lio 2-3 0-2 4, Ethan Danner 0-1 0-0 0, Robert Zanella 0-0 0-0 0.</B> Totals: 20-45 3-8 47<B>Jeannette 10 22 15 11—58Knoch 6 13 17 11—473-point goals:</B> Brown, Baradzeij, Williams 2; Gallagher 2, Wirtz 2<B>JV:</B> Knoch, 44-33 (K:Robert Zanella 13)<B>SUMMITACADEMY 36Laurence Lewis 1-2 0-1 2, Rafiq Blakely 0-5 2-2 2, Keith Banichar 3-14 1-2 8, Tauvea Hurt 2-3 0-0 4, Rashion Edwards 1-1 0-3 3, Chandler Smalls 0-1 1-2 1, Kevin Goodman 0-0 0-0 0, Mark Waldron 0-2 0-4 0, Jalik Peay 6-9 0-0 13, Marcus Easley 1-1 1-2 3. </B>Totals: 14-38 5-16 36<B>BUTLER 59Cole Harvey 1-3 0-0 3, Eric King 0-1 1-2 1, Brian Jendesky 4-11 1-2 9, Ben Bachman 1-6 0-2 3, Jeff Tompkins 5-7 2-6 12, Nate Snodgrass 5-5 0-0 12, Vinny Schmidt 1-6 3-4 5, David Schmidt 1-4 1-2 3, Bobby Swartwout 3-6 1-1 7, Logan Renwick 1-3 0—0 2, David Tompkins 0-1 0-1 0, Cody Herald 0-0 0-0 0, Jiang Hyson 1-1 0-0 2.</B> Totals: 23-54 9-10 59<B>Summit Academy 2 9 12 13—36Butler 12 15 22 10—593-point goals:</B> Banichar, Edwards, Peay; Bachman, Snodgrass 2, Harvey<B>JV:</B> Butler, 53-30 (B:Cody West 13, David Tompkins 12, Zach Slater 10; SA:Isiah Davis 10<B>Tuesday:</B> Butler Christmas Tournament:Knoch vs. Summit Academy, consolation game, 6 p.m.; Butler vs. Jeannette, championship game, 7:30 p.m.
