BUTLER TWP — When push came to shove, Joel Pepmeyer pushed the hardest.

North Hills' 6-foot-2 senior center scored 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, paving the way for the Indians' 55-47 Section 3-AAAA boys basketball win at Butler Friday night.

The lead changed hands 12 times in the second half and North Hills' winning margin of eight points was the largest lead of the night for either team.

“I have to give that kid credit. He got us in both games this year,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “He's their best player and he did what best players are supposed to do, come through at crunch time.”

Pepmeyer had nine rebounds and three steals to go with his 20 points. He had 23 points and 12 boards in the Indians' 50-49 win over Butler on Jan. 8.

“He almost single-handedly beat us both times,” Clement said.

On Senior Night, Butler senior guard Dom Pusateri was doing a pretty good job on North Hills as well. He scored a career-high 21 points, grabbed three steals and dished out three assists.

Pusateri sank three treys early in the fourth quarter, giving the Golden Tornado (5-13, 2-10) the lead each time. He added a free throw with 4:06 remaining to give Butler a 45-43 edge.

The Indians closed the game on a 10-2 run. Pepmeyer stuck back an offensive rebound and sank a layup off a fast break with 2:41 left to give North Hills (9-11, 4-8) the lead for good.

When Luke Tincha stuck back an offensive rebound with 26.4 seconds left, Butler was within 49-47. But Pepmeyer sank two free throws with 25.3 seconds left, then hit a layup and two free throws after an intentional foul with 6.1 seconds to go to seal the deal.

“The first half of this game, we were in a zone, play was kind of sloppy ... There was no flow,” North Hills coach Buzz Gabos said.

“Pusateri started hitting 3s and I thought we were getting in his face. He just drained shots. The pace opened up in the fourth quarter and Joel was able to get down the floor and get to the basket.”

Tincha had eight points and six rebounds off the bench for Butler. Seth Horwat, another senior, started the game and had seven points and seven rebounds.

Horwat missed much of this season with a thumb injury.

“This was the best performance by a group of seniors that I've seen on Senior Night in quite a while,” Clement said. “You always want to win, but we really wanted to win this one.

“Dom's dying in there (locker room) because we lost. He's talking to the younger kids right now, going over ways to get better. That kid fights to the end. I'm proud of him.

“Tincha has come a long way this year. He was guarding Pepmeyer and held him to four points in those first three quarters,” Clement added.

Butler's other five seniors include Seth Cook, Luke Hartung, Jordan Cratty, Zach Neudorfer and Shae Stobert. Stobert had two steals and Cratty two buckets as starters in the first quarter.

All of the seniors were honored during a pregame ceremony.

“They gave us quality minutes,” Clement said.

Mark McIntyre had 10 points and seven rebounds for North Hills, Corey O'Malley nine points and a pair of steals.

“It's a shame that the four playoff spots in our section were wrapped up so early this season,” Gabos said. “We're playing all of these so-called meaningless games, but they're still battles and they'd be huge if a playoff spot was still up for grabs.”

Butler has dropped six straight games and fell to 1-9 when scoring fewer than 50 points.

“We're missing shots inside. That's been our Achilles' heel all year,” Clement said. “We look at the stat sheet and our inside shooting every game ... 21 of 44, 8 of 20, 9 of 23 ... I don't have an explanation for it. It's just one of those things.

“We're still working. We're going to do what we can to win our last three games.”

NORTH HILLS 55

Corey O'Malley 3-10 2-2 9, Dylan Mitchell 2-9 2-2 7, Danny White 2-7 2-2 6, Tanner Bergman 1-2 0-0 2, Mark McIntyre 5-5 0-0 10, Joel Pepmeyer 8-11 4-5 20, Shawndale Jones 0-2 0-0 0, Kindhal Taylor 0-2 1-2 1. Totals: 21-48 11-13 55.

BUTLER 47

Dom Pusateri 7-15 1-2 21, Seth Cook 0-5 0-0 0, Keenan Krause 0-1 0-0 0, Zach Neudorfer 0-3 0-0 0, Shae Stobert 0-1 0-0 0, Arum Krause 0-1 0-0 0, Nick Patten 2-7 0-0 5, Luke Hartung 0-4 0-0 0, Luke Tincha 4-4 0-0 8, Mark Gross 0-1 0-0 0, Jordan Cratty 2-3 0-0 4, Seth Horwat 3-3 1-3 7, Andrew Paterno 1-4 0-0 2. Totals: 19-52 2-5 47.

North Hills 12 10 13 20—55

Butler10 10 13 14—47

3-point goals: O'Malley, Mitchell; Pusateri 6, Patten

JV: Butler, 69-63, 2OT (NH: Kindhal Taylor 22, Andrew Votjko 17, Shawndale Jones 15; B: Andrew Paterno 27, Alec Geibel 13)

Tuesday: Butler at Shaler