Butler's Luke Tincha tries to put up a shot while being harrassed by a host of Seneca Valley defenders on Tuesday night during the Tornado's defeat to the Raiders at Seneca Valley High School.

JACKSON TWP — Point guard, small forward, center ... forget all of that.

“We don't worry about who's playing the one, the two, three, four, whatever,” Seneca Valley coach Victor Giannotta said. “We just have basketball players.”

And they put together their second straight dominating defensive performance, defeating Butler, 46-27, in a Section 3-AAAA boys basketball matchup Tuesday night.

The Raiders (10-3, 5-2) held host Hampton to 35 points last Friday in a runaway victory. Tuesday night, they ran away from Butler (5-8, 2-5) in the third quarter.

Seneca Valley held a 16-9 lead at halftime.

“We were working so hard on defense, but it was frustrating scoring only nine points in the first,” Butler coach Matt Clement said.

“They hit some big shots right off the bat in the third quarter, we didn't, and the game got away.”

Seneca Valley outscored the Golden Tornado 19-4 in the third frame, including a 17-1 run in the first 5:30 to open up a 33-10 advantage. Senior center Alex Snyder scored eight of his game-high 14 points during the run.

“Our heads are on right, right now,” Snyder said. “We know what we're doing. Defensively, we beat each other up every day in practice, so things are coming easily in the games.”

Butler managed only 13 points in the first three quarters, sinking five of 21 field-goal attempts while turning the ball over 19 times.

Most of the Tornado's fourth-quarter points came from the bench. Nick Patten paced Butler with six points and three steals off the pine. Luke Tincha also came off the bench to snare a team-leading five rebounds.

“We've been studying Syracuse films, watching their 2-3 zone,” Giannotta said. “We're playing good basketball. Going 5-2 in the section looks good. Hopefully, we're hitting our stride.

“Butler's a good team ... I don't know how pretty this looked, but it's a win.”

The Raiders have won four straight games.Snyder had six rebounds and two assists to go with his 14 points. R.J. McCauley contributed 10 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists.Easton Bazzoli, a 6-foot-5 guard, had nine points and three steals, guard Matt Darby eight points, three assists and three steals.“We work on our inside-outside game quite a bit,” Snyder said. “When a defense collapses inside, we kick it back out to the open guy.“That's just good basketball.”That's something Clement and the Tornado are looking for right now.“They (Raiders) do a good job with their 2-3 zone, but it's nothing we didn't expect or prepare for,” Clement said. “We just didn't execute. We weren't aggressive offensively.“Our defense was fine. You hold any team to 46 points, you expect to be right in that game. We got some open looks. It's disappointing that no one could step up and hit a shot.“Just a bad day at the office,” Clement added.BUTLER 27Dom Pusateri 1-6 0-0 2, Seth Cook 1-2 0-0 2, Keenan Krause 2-8 1-2 5, Zach Neudorfer 0-1 0-0 0, Shae Stobert 1-1 0-0 3, Arum Krause 0-1 2-2 2, Nick Patten 2-5 1-1 6, Luke Tincha 1-4 0-0 2, Mark Gross 1-1 0-0 2, Justice Lewandowski 0-2 0-0 0, Andrew Paterno 1-4 0-0 3, Jordan Cratty 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 10-35 4-7 27.SENECA VALLEY 46Zach Snyder 0-0 1-2 1, Matt Darby 4-5 0-1 8, Easton Bazzoli 3-10 3-3 9, Dan Cashdollar 1-1 0-0 2, Mike Smith 0-2 0-0 0, TJ Holl 0-5 0-0 0, Eric Woods 0-1 0-0 0, R.J. McCauley 5-9 0-1 10, Taylor Mantick 1-3 0-0 2, Alex Snyder 7-10 0-0 14. Totals: 21-46 4-5 46.Butler 5 4 4 14—27Seneca Valley12 4 19 11—463-point goals: Stobert, Patten, PaternoJV: Seneca Valley, 48-44 (B: Alec Geibel 20, Justrice Lewandowski 12; SV: Zach Snyder 15, Dakota Topf 14)Friday: Butler at New Castle, Shaler at Seneca Valley

Seneca Valley's R J McCaulley goes up for two during Tuesday night's game against Butler.