BUTLER TWP — North Hills held on. Butler will move on.

The visiting Indians witstood a furious Butler rally late to defeat the Golden Tornado, 60-56, in a Section 3-AAAA boys basketball game Wednesday night.

North Hills — which led 11-0 four minutes into the game and led throughout — had a 53-43 edge with 5:24 to play before the Tornado put together a 10-1 run to pull within 54-53 with 2:07 left.

“We just had to find a way to hold it together,” North Hills coach Buzz Gabos said. “We had chances to put the game away much earlier than we did.”

North Hills (7-5, 2-3) lost sophomore guard and leading scorer Shawndale Jones (24 ppg.) for the closing minutes of the contest as he suffered a deep gash above an eye. Senior guard Danny White has the flu and didn't make the trip.

“He's one of our better ball handlers and we missed him tonight,” Gabos admitted. “We were definitely playing shorthanded late.”

Butler (3-9, 0-5) sank 10 of 11 free throws in the final quarter, including a pair by Andrew Paterno with 2:07 on the clock to cut the gap to 54-53. A Ryan Burek layup upped the margin to 56-53 at the 1:56 mark.

North Hills' Dylan Mitchell missed the front end of two one-and-one's to keep the Tornado alive, but Paterno misfired on a pair of 3-point attempts. Burek sank two free throws, Butler's Nick Patten answering with three after being fouled while attempting a trey.

Mitchell hit a free throw with 8.1 seconds left. Butler missed a chance to get off a potential game-tying trey when the Tornado threw the ball away with 3.6 seconds to play.

Mitchell finally clinched the win by hitting a free throw with 2.6 ticks on the clock.

“I saw a lot of good things tonight compared to how we have been playing,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “There was definitely improvement, but we're looking for wins.

“Nick Patten played well. Andrew Paterno played well. Eric Hindman gave us a couple of big rebounds, Justice Lewandowski was doing good things before injuring a hip ... The guys we had out there tonight were doing the job.”

Hindman snared a pair of offensive rebounds and kicked the ball out to Paterno for a key trey during the aforementioned 10-1 run.

“We outplayed them for the last three and a half quarters,” Clement said. “But we weren't getting to loose balls, those balls that are 50-50 on who's going to wind up with it.

“Our guys played hard ... I feel bad for them because they really wanted this win ... But sometimes it takes that extra push of determination to get those balls, like Eric did on those rebounds.

“I believe that's coming. I still believe we're going to get there,” Clement added.

Butler's loss was its fifth straight section defeat and eighth in nine games overall.

Jones had 18 points, four rebounds and three assists before leaving the game. Burek added 14 points and Mitchell 11. North Hills held a 31-28 edge in rebounding and had 10 turnovers to Butler's 16.

“I was shocked the way this game started, but we knew we weren't going to win by 20,” Gabos said. “We gutted this one out. In this section, you take a win anywhere, any way you can get it, just to stay alive in this thing.”

Patten led the Tornado with 21 points. Paterno contributed 15 points and three steals, Mark Gross seven rebounds and Lewandowski three assists.

“When you've been losing games, you take the floor to start each game unsure of yourself,” Clement said. “That's something we have to get over.”

NORTH HILLS 60

Dylan Mitchell 4-6 3-6 11, Kindhal Taylor 1-3 0-2 2, Ryan Burek 5-10 2-2 14, Shawndale Jones 7-17 3-5 18, CJ Paulauskas 2-6 1-2 5, Nick Smith 0-1 2-3 2, Andrew Vojtko 3-9 2-2 8, Nick Sabolovic 0-0 0-0 0, Nick Colaizzi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-52 13-21 60.

BUTLER 56

Justice Lewandowski 1-3 0-0 3, Arum Krause 0-2 2-2 2, Keenan Krause 0-2 3-4 3, Andrew Paterno 4-9 5-5 15, Nick Patten 7-13 5-7 21, Cory Wheeler 0-0 2-4 2, Tyler Frederick 3-5 0-0 6, Eric Hindman 0-0 0-0 0, Mark Gross 1-5 2-4 4, Joel Stutz 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 16-40 19-26 56.

North Hills 18 13 16 13—60

Butler9 16 16 15—56

3-point goals: Burek 2, Jones; Lewandwski, Patten 2, Paterno 2

JV: Butler, 62-60 (B: Tyler Frederick 14, Joel Stutz 10; NH: Nick Smith 27, Luke Chujcko 12)

Friday: Butler at Shaler