BUTLER TWP — Seneca Valley in a slide? Coach Victor Giannotta won't hear of it.

The Raiders snapped a four-game section losing streak Friday night with a 57-52 boys basketball win at Butler, taking the lead for good with 3:48 left in the contest.

“Three of those section losses came to New Castle, North Allegheny and Hampton, three excellent teams,” Giannotta argued. “And we were 3-4 in our last seven games coming into tonight.

“I don't consider that a slide, a slump, anything like that.”

His team backed him up with its play Friday.

The lead changed hands for the sixth time in the Raiders' regular season finale when senior guard Easton Bazzoli sank a layup with 3:48 remaining for a 46-45 advantage.

Coming out of a timeout, Bazzoli stole the inbounds pass and jammed it home for a sudden three-point edge. Butler never got closer the rest of the way.

“A huge play,” Giannotta said of the steal. “Easton made a basketball play there. It turned the momentum.”

Bazzoli said he had anticipated making that play all night.

“I came close a few times, just missed it,” he said. “On that one, I was able to read the play and step in front of the pass.

“We needed something to turn this game. That felt good.”

Seneca Valley (15-7, 8-6) was able to seal the win at the foul line, hitting nine of 11 free throws in the final quarter.

“Once they got the lead, they widened it and closed the deal,” Butler coachMatt Clement said. “That's what good teams do.”

Matt Darby sank both ends of a one-and-one with 2:50 left. After a steal and layup by Butler's Arum Krause cut the gap to 50-47, Bazzoli snared an offensive rebound off a missed one-and-one, got fouled and sank both free throws for a five-point lead with 1:26 to play.

Bazzoli tallied 18 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists on the night. R.J. McCauley contributed 12 points and four rebounds.

“McCauley is one of the most underrated players in this section,” Clement said.

Zach Snyder came off the bench to grab six rebounds for the Raiders.

Sophomore guard Arum Krause had a career-high 17 points and three steals to pace Butler (5-15, 2-12), which dropped its eighth straight game. Dom Pusateri had 12 points, five assists and three steals, Seth Cook 11 points and nine rebounds for the Golden Tornado.

“Looking at the second half of our schedule, we've been in every game except for New Castle,” Clement said. “We just keep coming up short.

“This is not a losing program. Unfortunately, it is this year. But the seniors we're losing were a big part of our success over the previous years.”

Nick Patten had eight points and four rebounds off the bench for the Tornado.

“Some of our younger kids had big games tonight. Hopefully, we're seeing a glimpse of our future,” Clement said.

Mike Smith and Eric Woods had eight points each for the Raiders, who forced Butler into eight fourth-quarter turnovers. The Raiders trailed by three entering the final period and never held a double-digit lead.

“We were able to turn them over and get enough transition buckets to push that lead to two, three, five points ... We knew we were gonna get Butler's best shot tonight,” Giannotta said. “Those kids always get after it.”

Seneca Valley finished with the fourth and final playoff spot in Section 3-AAAA and will learn its first-round opponent at Tuesday's WPIAL pairings meeting.

SENECA VALLEY 57

Zach Snyder 0-4 0-0 0, Matt Darby 2-4 2-2 6, Easton Bazzoli 6-14 4-4 18, Mike Smith 3-4 2-2-3 8, TJ Holl 2-6 0-0 5, Eric Woods 2-4 3-5 8, R.J. McCauley 4-10 3-3 12, Taylor Mantick 0-0 0-0 0, Chad Izenas 0-1 0-0 0, Kyle Schneider 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-47 14-17 57.

BUTLER 52

Dom Pusateri 4-12 2-2 12, Seth Cook 4-4 3-3 11, Keenan Krause 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Neudorfer 0-4 0-0 0, Arum Krause 7-13 1-1 17, Nick Patten 3-6 0-1 8, Seth Horwat 1-2 0-0 2, Luke Tincha 1-1 0-0 2, Mark Gross 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Cratty 0-2 0-0 0, Andrew Paterno 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 20-45 6-8 52.

Seneca Valley 20 8 9 20—57

Butler12 16 12 12—52

3-point goals: Bazzoli 2, Holl, Woods, McCauley; Pusateri 2, A.Krause 2, Patten 2

JV: Seneca Valley, 36-35 (SV: Zach Snyder 10; B: Nick Patten 12)

Monday: Butler at South Fayette