BUTLER TWP — Pine-Richland added an exclamation point while clinching the Section 1-6A boys basketball crown Tuesday night in the Butler gym.

“This was for the section title and with that comes one of the top seeds and a first-round bye in the (WPIAL) tournament,” Rams coach Jeff Ackermann said.

“This game was important to us.”

They played like it.

The Rams (16-2, 8-0) sank 37 of 62 shots from the field — including 16 treys — in running away from the Golden Tornado, 95-76. Pine-Richland never trailed in the game.

Pat Shanahan sank a trey seconds into the contest. A Devin Carney layup capped a 6-0 Butler run that pulled the Tornado (13-4, 6-2) into an 8-8 tie at the 5:45 mark of the opening quarter.

The Rams closed the quarter with a 13-3 run, led at halftime by 12 and used a 13-3 run to begin the third quarter to open up a 57-35 advantage midway through that period.

That was their biggest lead of the night.

“That is a very good team that played very good tonight,” Butler coach Matt Clement said of Pine-Richland. “Could we have rebounded better and not given them as many shots? Yes. Could we have played better defense? Yes.

“But you gotta give those guys credit. They were hitting some contested shots, too.”

Six different players sank treys for Pine-Richland, which won its 15th consecutive game.

“We play a lot of defenses and we tried them all tonight,” Clement said. “The 1-2-2's been good to us, the 1-3-1 has been good to us, so has our 3-2. I think we tried them all in the first quarter.

“They just torched us tonight.”

Dan Petcash paced the Rams with 29 points, adding six rebounds and five assists. Greg Shulkosky scored 21 points, had 11 assists and six rebounds.

Kyle Polce scored 14 points and had five assists while Shanahan scored 12 points.

“We did a nice job of passing the ball around and we got a lot of open shots,” Ackermann said. “There's no guarantee you're going to hit those shots. Tonight, we hit 'em.”

Pine-Richland also came out in a zone defense of its own for the first time all season.

The reason? Ethan Morton.

“He's that good,” Ackermann said. “We could have played man against him again, but I was too afraid he'd get a lot of our guys in foul trouble.

“I used a zone to protect my players.”

Morton scored 51 points against Pine-Richland in Butler's 79-74 loss there earlier this season.

“I've been coaching high school around here for 18 years and Morton is definitely in the top three or five players I've seen during that time,” Ackermann said.

Morton wound up with 20 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds, but had only 11 points through three quarters.

“That zone surprised us because they've always been a man team,” Morton said. “We eventually got going offensively, but team defense continues to be our Achilles heel.

“We need to straighten that out. Defense is the key to championship runs. We didn't make enough happen tonight.”

Pine-Richland had only three turnovers all night. The Rams had five turnovers in the first four minutes of their first game against Butler this season.

“They jumped on us 18-6 that night,” Ackermann said. “We just didn't play well during that stretch. Fortunately, I haven't seen us play that way since.”

Mason Montag came off the bench to score 19 points for the Tornado, sinking five treys. Devin Carney returned from a foot injury to score 15 points. Luke Patten and Mattix Clement had nine each.

The Tornado shot well in their own right, hitting 30 of 52 shots, including 13 treys. The teams combined to attempt only 10 free throws.

Butler can clinch sole possession of second place in the section with a win Friday night at Central Catholic.

“This is not the end for us,” Clement said. “The playoffs are coming and we can still make a lot of good things happen for ourselves.”

PINE-RICHLAND 95

Greg Shulkosky 9-17 0-0 21, Colin Luellen 5-10 0-0 11, Dan Petcash 11-19 2-2 29, Kyle Polce 5-8 1-2 14, Logan Murray 2-3 2-2 8, Pat Shanahan 5-5 0-0 12. Totals: 37-62 5-6 95.

BUTLER 76

Devin Carney 6-11 0-0 15, Colby Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Mattix Clement 3-8 0-0 9, Luke Patten 3-4 0-0 9, Charlie Kreinbucher 1-2 0-0 2, Mason Montag 7-11 0-0 19, Ethan Morton 9-15 2-3 20, Isaiah Scribner 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 30-52 3-4 76.

Pine-Richland 21 23 29 22 —95

Butler11 21 22 22 — 76

3-point goals: Shulkosky 3, Luellen, Petcash 5, Polce 3, Murray 2, Shanahan 2; Carney 3, Clement 3, Patten 2, Montag 5

JV: Pine-Richland, 55-48 ((P-R: Levi Wentz 15; B: Raine Gratzmiller 23, Anthony Malloy 11

Friday: Butler at Central Catholic