BUTLER TWP — Many people believe Ethan Morton is the best high school basketball player in the state.

Count MaxPreps among them.

The high school athletic website has named Butler's senior point guard Pennsylvania's Player of the Year. MaxPreps named a Player of the Year in each of the 50 states.

Criteria included team success, individual statistics along with local, regional and national honors.

“It's usually the big scorers who get these awards,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “Ethan is averaging 22 or 23 points a game or so, but there are probably some players averaging higher.

“It's his total game that sets him apart. It's his passing that got him recruited.”

Mars graduate Robby Carmody, now a sophomore at Notre Dame, received the MaxPreps state player of the year honor in 2018.

Heading to Purdue, the 6-foot-6 Morton has scored 2,198 points in his high school career. He's got 912 career rebounds and has around 700 assists.

“When you think about it, that's another 1,400 points he's partially responsible for,” Clement said. “He's averaging seven assists per game in his career and high school games are only 32 minutes long.

“His freshman year, he averaged seven shots per game. Even with that, he's put up all these numbers.”

This year, Morton is averaging 22.8 points, 12.8 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game. He is averaging 21.5 points, 8.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game throughout his high school career.

While appreciative of the award, Morton described it as “a team thing.”

“That was really evident in the playoffs,” he said. “It took everybody to win those games, to keep our streak going.

“My teammates should be enjoying this honor as much as I am, if not more. They're responsible for it. They have a ton to do with it.”

The first time Purdue coach Matt Painter came to watch Morton, he scored only 11 points while taking eight shots.

“The other team's defense chose to take his scoring away, but Ethan set up everybody else, we won the game and (Painter) was impressed,” Clement said.

Morton had 14 assists the first time the University of Virginia coaches watched him play.

Morton said he first developed his passing ability while in middle school.

“That's when I started playing AAU ball,” he said. “Through middle school, I was always the biggest kid. In AAU, I went up against kids taller, with long arms, extremely athletic. I had to do other things to succeed on the court because I was no longer able to just score all the time.

“I enjoy passing the ball. I love getting teammates involved. I get a lot of joy out of helping other guys be successful.”

Butler is 22-4 this season and riding a 17-game winning streak. The Golden Tornado are 22-1 with Morton in the lineup this season, 0-3 without him.

“There have been games this year in which Ethan could name the amount of points he wanted to score,” Clement said. “But he's not about that. Winning is what's important to him.

“Every game, he's going to do the best things to help the team win.”

Morton is one of few point guards who also jump center. Hampered by a sore ankle, he watched teammate Mason Montag handle that duty to begin the Tornado's last playoff game.

“That was a strange feeling, not being in that circle,” Morton admitted. “I had been doing that for a while.”

Morton's rebounding numbers picked up as teammates like Tyler Frederick, Isiah Scribner and Luke Patten were no longer on the floor with him.

“I knew I had to have more of a presence there,” Morton said of rebounding. “We have a lot of guys contribute in that regard.”

Butler's basketball season may or may not be over.

Morton's postseason honors may only be starting.

“Winning the section, the WPIAL ... Those were important things to me,” he said. “It's been awesome being a part of that.

“It's just tough not getting closure to our season. I hope it happens. When we won that last playoff game (77-73 over Upper St. Clair), we were all so happy, just going crazy. At the time, we never thought it might be our last game.”