North Allegheny hands Butler boys basketball WPIAL section-opening loss after no-call on late 3
WEXFORD — The whistle didn’t sound. Not when Butler needed it, anyway.
With 12 seconds left in Friday night’s WPIAL Section 1-6A opener on the road against North Allegheny, Golden Tornado senior Stainton Forbes worked to the right wing and leaped to fire off a 3-point try that would’ve tied it at 46 points apiece.
With the Tigers’ Blake Craft guarding him, the shot rimmed out and was rebounded by the hosts’ Will Robertson. Forbes fell to the floor as he landed, but no foul was called, and Butler suffered 48-43 boys basketball loss.
“Because I hit the one before, I was feeling good,” Forbes said. “And they were telling me to go, so I knew I had to do something with the ball, so I just tried to get the shot off. ... I honestly don’t remember, because of the adrenaline and everything, but it didn’t feel like it was completely clean.
“It is what it is.”
Forbes had sank one in traffic from the left corner with 1:50 to play, cutting the North Allegheny (4-0, 1-0) lead to 44-41. Justin Stalter split a pair of free throws on the other end before Andrew Gettinger pulled the Golden Tornado (2-2, 0-1) within two points with a pair of makes at the charity stripe.
Butler wouldn’t score again, though.
Craft added one more free throw with 17 seconds left, then Forbes ripped down a board and traversed the court. Craft appeared not to allow Forbes to follow through with his final shot from deep.
“You know, we needed a foul,” Golden Tornado coach Matt Clement said. “I’m watching the whole court, and I gotta stick up for my guy (when) he falls down on the shot. ... That’s part of the game. There was a lot of people falling down on 3s today and they called some of them, so you can’t call all of them.
“The bench reacted and I reacted to the bench. That’s what I have to do in that situation.”
Butler junior forward Joseph Porneluzi stood up out of his sideline chair hoping to join his teammates in celebration if the shot went through. Instead, he fell back into it, bewildered.
The Golden Tornado led by eight after the first frame and headed into halftime with a two-point edge. In the final frame, it allowed the Tigers’ Jahlil Archer a pair of and-one opportunities out of timeouts. Down 44-38 with just over two minutes remaining, Butler allowed an offensive rebound off a pair of errant free throws.
“There was three missed free throw offensive rebounds that cost us,” Clement said. “We just gotta handle the ball better. We gotta get the ball to our guys on time better. I thought for 85% of that game, we defended pretty well, but when you get tired, sometimes you forgot what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.”
Gettinger, who was hampered by an illness this week, wound up with 14 points and seven boards. Forbes tied for a game-high with 16 points and added eight rebounds.
The game was physical throughout. Stout Tornado defenders Jace Gratzmiller and Mavrik Clement both fouled out late.
“Nothing cheap, everything good,” Clement said. “This was exactly what I knew was gonna happen when we came down — not the result — but I knew the game was gonna be like that. It was gonna be choppy and we were gonna have to work. They made shots at the end and got to the foul line and were a little better than we were.”
BUTLER 43
Stainton Forbes 6 2-3 16, Andrew Gettinger 4 4-5 14, Boden Lenyk 3 0-2 7, Mavrik Clement 1 3-6 5, Cael Hanley 0 1-2 1, Tobias Geibel 0 0-0 0, Jace Gratzmiller 0 0-0 0, Jaydon Wilbert 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 10-18 43.
NORTH ALLEGHENY 48
Blake Craft 5 3-7 16, Will Robertson 4 1-4 10, Justin Stalter 3 2-4 8, Bobby Dopirak 2 2-2 6, Jahlil Archer 2 1-2 5, Ben Coffman 1 0-2 3, Peter Bratich 0 0-0 0, Jack Kinross 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 9-21 48.
Butler 15 9 8 11 — 43
North Allegheny 7 15 14 12 — 48
3-point goals: North Allegheny 5 (Craft 3, Coffman, Robertson); Butler 5 (Forbes 2, Gettinger 2, Lenyk)
Tuesday: North Hills at Butler
