BETHEL PARK — For three quarters, Butler was nip-and-tuck with City League contender Obama Academy.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Eagles, however, as did a 79-66 season-opening boys basketball victory Friday afternoon in the Bethel Park Tip-Off Tournament.

The Golden Tornado began this season the same way it ended last year as Obama bounced Butler from the 2012 PIAA tournament.

“They have some experienced players back from last year, they were playing with confidence and most importantly, they knew they could beat us because they had already done that,” Butler coach Matt Clement said.

Obama Academy took a 46-45 advantage into the final quarter — and never surrendered that lead. The Eagles scored 33 points in the final eight minutes, sinking 17 of 21 free throws.

The first three quarters saw 15 lead changes, 11 ties and neither team having more than a four-point lead.

“It was fast-paced, up and down the floor, which is how we like to play,” Eagles coach Nate Lofton said. “We don’t have size, so we want to make teams run with us.”

Obama’s biggest lead of the night was the final score.

And despite having only one player taller than 6-foot, the Eagles enjoyed a 33-27 edge in rebounding.

“We’ve got five guys 6-5 and we let them outrebound us,” Clement said. “That’s just one of many things wrong with this equation tonight.

“You can’t give up close to 80 points. You can’t give up 50 points to two players. You can’t play a zone most of the night and allow 22 of their 27 field goals to be lay-ups.

“That just comes down to grit and heart and I didn’t see a whole lot of that out of us in this game,” Clement added.

D.J. Porter, a 6-4 junior forward, had 26 points and 10 rebounds while senior guard Deandre Byrd contributed 24 points and six boards for Obama. Porter’s production came off the bench.

“He’s normally a starter, but I wanted to see how we’d play without D.J. on the floor,” Lofton said. “We got him in there fairly early.”

The Tornado had 22 turnovers — eight in the first quarter — to Obama’s 20.

“We handed them a lot of their possessions there,” Clement said. “Hopefully, this was first-game jitters and that nervousness is gone now.

“The good news is, I have 16 players I can use in figuring this equation out.”

Senior forward Seth Cook, in his first game for Butler since moving into the area from Michigan — paced the Tornado with 27 points and six rebounds. He scored 15 of Butler’s 27 points in the first half.

Cook spent much of the third quarter on the bench with three fouls. Nick Patten scored all eight of his points in the third period. Luke Hartung had six rebounds.

“Seth played a very good game,” Clement said.

Lofton admitted Cook and Butler’s other inside players were hurting his team early.

“We began pressuring the ball more and taking away that pass down low,” Lofton said. “When they got the ball in there, they were scoring.”

Butler’s inexperience may have played a factor there, as well.

“I saw a bunch of our guys out there trying to find out if they could play basketball instead of seeing courage and confidence saying, ‘I’m going to play basketball.’” Clement said. “There’s a big difference.”

Butler returns to action Saturday in the consolation game against Thomas Jefferson. Bethel Park defeated TJ, 61-38.

OBAMA ACADEMY 79

Ted Bell 1-7 3-4 5, Deandre Byrd 9-12 6-8 24, Calique Jones 4-7 2-2 10, D’Mon Reynolds 4-7 0-0 8, Leyland Weston 1-6 0-0 2, D.J. Porter 6-11 13-19 26, Dorian Bose 2-3 0-0 4, Rob Lee 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-53 24-32 79.

BUTLER 66

Jordan Cratty 0-0 0-0 0, Dom Pusateri 2-6 2-6 7, Seth Cook 10-11 7-9 27, Keenan Krause 1-4 3-4 5, Zach Neudorfer 1-3 0-0 3, Andrew Paterno 0-2 0-0 0, Arum Krause 0-1 0-0 0, Seth Horwat 2-4 0-2 4, Nick Patten 3-6 0-0 8, Luke Hartung 2-10 1-2 6, Luke Tincha 2-3 0-0 4, Mark Gross 1-2 0-1 2. Totals: 24-51 13-24 66.

Obama Academy 13 14 19 33—79

Butler 13 14 18 21—62

3-pointers: Porter; Patten 2, Pusateri, Hartung, Neudorfer

Saturday: Butler vs. Thomas Jefferson, 1 p.m., at Bethel Park