UnFitting Finale
PITTSBURGH – Central Catholic put together one of its best offensive showings this season. Its intimate home environment was wild.
The combination was too much for Butler to conquer Friday night.
The Vikings connected on nearly 58% of their field goals, including nine treys in the first 11 minutes, and never trailed in the WPIAL Class 6A boys basketball quarterfinal. The Golden Tornado succumbed, 69-38.
The hosts kick-started a 14-0 barrage three minutes into the opening frame. With the score even at two, Butler fouled Viking sophomore Peyton Wehner on a 3-point attempt. He sunk the first two free throws and missed the third, which Central Catholic (18-5) chased down and kicked out to Vernon Settles, who sunk a quick trey.
Three more Central Catholic 3-pointers fell on following possessions and the Vikings wound up making nine of their initial 12 tries from behind the arc.
“They (the Vikings) haven’t done (that) all year,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “But, playoff game, they had some rest, they got their home gym. Give them credit. They played really good. They were physical.
“They just came out there and they beat us up. They bullied us.”
Curiously, Central Catholic was coming off a 44-38 win over Baldwin in its regular-season finale, a game in which the Vikings posted their second-lowest offensive output of the season.
Butler (13-10) knocked down only three field goals in the first eight minutes and could seemingly never find any sort of rhythm. In trying to claw back from down 15 at the start of the second quarter, the Golden Tornado made things worse for themselves with hurried play.
“We started shooting quick and turning it over and throwing some bad passes and things that were uncharacteristic,” Clement said. “They (Central Catholic) hit their shots, so now they have a bigger lead and the shots are easier to hit. We (were) trying to score 10-point baskets.”
Even in building a formidable advantage, Vikings coach Brian Urso was more concerned with whether his team could continue to smother the Golden Tornado’s adept shooters.
“I knew our offense was going to be in sync tonight, it was defensively (that I thought), ‘Can we still create more possessions for us to have more opportunities to score?” Urso said.
Butler faced a 23-point deficit at halftime that gradually worsened in the third period, partly because of the Vikings’ effort on the boards. Central Catholic notched six offensive rebounds in the stanza – two of them coming from missed and-one free throws – and redeemed almost all of them into points.
The mercy clock went into effect in a second half in which the Golden Tornado could only manage 18 points. They shot 11-of-33 (33.3%) in total and 2-of-15 (13.3%) from 3-point range.
“The pace (and) the atmosphere took us out of our game,” Clement said. “We talked about it a lot. I was worried about it. We came down here a couple years ago to win the section and (even) with Ethan (Morton), the pace took us out of the game that day.
“It can happen. That was my big worry coming into the game, it really was.”
Carney and Raine Gratzmiller turned in 13 points each. Clement praised them and the rest of his senior core, a group that aided in the program’s recent success and guided this year’s crew.
“They’ve won a lot of games,” Clement said. “They’ve won a section, they’ve won a WPIAL (championship), they’ve been to another WPIAL final, they’ve been to the semifinals. They had a lot of success and a lot of fun.”
Central Catholic advances to play section foe Fox Chapel in the semifinal round.
BUTLER 38
Devin Carney 4 4-4 13, Raine Gratzmiller 4 3-4 13, Charlie Kreinbucher 2 2-4 6, Madden Clement 0 2-2 2, Colin Casteel 1 0-0 2, Ryan Porch 0 2-2 2. Totals: 11 13-16 38.
CENTRAL CATHOLIC 69
Dante DePante 6 1-3 16, Moses Langston 6 0-1 15, Debaba Tshiebwe 5 0-3 10, Randy Wilkerson 2 0-1 8, Peyton Wehner 2 2-3 7, Vernon Settles 2 1-3 6, Jaden Bailey 2 0-0 4, Carter Anthony 1 0-0 2, Chris Conner 0 1-2 1. Totals: 26 5-16 69.
Butler 7 13 12 6 – 38
Central Catholic 22 21 19 7 – 69
3-point goals: Butler 2 (Gratzmiller, Carney); Central Catholic 10 (DePante 3, Langston 3, Wilkerson 2, Wehner, Settles)
