Clutch fourth quarter sends
ERIE — Eight minutes.
That's what the scoreboard clock read at the start of the fourth quarter. It was also what was left of Butler's boys basketball season — unless the team did something about it.
It did.
The Golden Tornado outscored Cathedral Prep 19-8 in the final quarter, sinking 13 of 16 free throws, to defeat the Ramblers 60-52 in a PIAA Class AAAA first-round game Saturday night at Gannon University's Hammermill Center.
Butler (16-10) trailed by three points at the end of the first, second and third quarters before putting together a stellar final period.
“These kids dug deep,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “They didn't want to see this end yet.”
The Tornado took the lead for good on a Bobby Swartwout layup with 4:15 left in the game. The score had been tied 10 times and the lead had changed hands nine times by that point.
But no more.
“We went to our 1-3-1 zone in the fourth and they had trouble hitting shots against it,” Swartwout said.
Cathedral Prep (14-10) sank 18 of 31 shots from the floor in the first three quarters, but canned only three of 13 in the fourth.
“We got inside on them a lot earlier in the game because they made a concerted effort to take our guards out of the game,” Ramblers coach Mark Majewski said. “They switched to that zone and we couldn't hit shots.”
Butler slowly extended its lead down the stretch by sinking free throws. Cody Herald hit one with 3:46 left. Swartwout sank a pair at the 2:48 mark and two more with 2:34 to play, hiking the lead to 55-48.
After the Ramblers crept within 55-52, Herald sank a free throw with 1:06 left. Swartwout and Nate Snodgrass sank two free throws each in the final 30 seconds to salt away the victory.
Butler faces City League champion Allderdice (18-7) — a 67-52 winner over Chartiers Valley Saturday — at 6 p.m. Wednesday at North Allegheny in the second round.
“Once we have the lead in the fourth quarter, we feel pretty confident because we're a good foul-shooting team,” senior forward Vinnie Schmidt step. “Bobby, Cody, Nate ... Those guys are gonna hit ‘em.”Clement couldn't hide his enthusiasm after the game.“I'm almost speechless. I couldn't be prouder of these guys,” he said. “Nobody's giving us a chance in this thing, but we're still here. We're still playing.“Coming up here to play them on their home floor was motivation for us. We knew it wasn't gonna be like last time (66-38 Butler win in season opener at Hollidaysburg tournament), but we believed we could win.“Our crowd was as big and loud as theirs was. I can't say enough about the support we're getting from the community. It's fantastic,” he addedSwartwout led Butler with 25 points, six rebounds and two assists. He scored his 1,000th career point early in the second quarter and now has 1,020 in his career.Swartwout sank nine of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter,.“I don't get any of those points without the help of my teammates,” Swartwout said. “I shot badly from outside today, but they kept giving me the ball. They have faith in me and that means a lot.”Majewski said his team's goal was to make Swartwout work for his points inside.“And we did that,” he said. “The kid was hitting fadeaways. We couldn't stop him and that's to his credit.”“Bobby's grown into a man in these last five or six games,” Clement said.Schmidt scored 13 points, Herald 11 and Snodgrass contributed seven points, four rebounds and two assists.Adam Blazek paced Cathedral Prep with 18 points and eight rebounds. Joe Gnacinski had 12 points and seven boards.Blazek scored the Ramblers' first 12 points, hitting his first five shots. He scored 16 of his points in the first half, managing only two field goal attempts in the second half.“They didn't change up anything defensively on him,” Majewski said. “They just got more intense and started denying him the ball.”<B>BUTLER 60</B>Nate Snodgrass 2-8 2-2 7, Trevor Wideman 0-0 0-0 0, Cody Herald 3-5 3-5 11, Zach Slater 1-4 0-0 2, Jake Hilliard 0-2 0-0 0, Vinnie Schmidt 6-9 0-3 13, David Tompkins 1-1 0-0 2, Bobby Swartwout 6-14 13-15 25. <B>Totals:</B> 19-43 18-25 60.<B>CATHEDRAL PREP 52</B>Sheldon Zablotny 4-10 1-2 10, Dominic DiRaimo 2-7 1-4 7, Nico Sisinni 0-0 0-0 0, Adam Blazek 7-12 3-3 18, Joe Gnacinski 6-10 0-0 12, Mike Knoll 2-3 0-0 4, Delton Williams 0-2 1-2 1. <B>Totals:</B> 21-44 6-11 52.<B>Butler 11 14 16 19—60Cathedral Prep 14 14 16 8—523-point goals:</B> Butler 4 (Snodgrass, Herald 2, Schmidt); Cathedral Prep 4 (Zablotny, DiRaimo 2, Blazek).<B>Wednesday:</B> PIAA Class AAAA second round-Butler vs,. Allderdice, 6 p.m., at North Allegheny
