Butler drops Penn Hills, 63-52, as Snodgrass explodes for 31
PENN HILLS — Nate Snodgrass has been pretty good the past few years.
You should see him now.
Butler's senior point guard scored a career-high 31 points, dished out nine assists and grabbed six rebounds Friday night as the Golden Tornado opened the boys basketball season with a 63-52 victory at Penn Hills.
The game was the nightcap of the Penn Hills Basketball Tip-Off Classic's opening round. Butler will play Mt. Lebanon — a 56-38 winner over Kiski Area — in the tourney title game at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The Tornado held a tenuous 37-35 lead through three quarters Friday.
“Nate lifted the team and carried it on his back in that last quarter,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “He's been working hard for a long time to get his game to this point.
“It was great to see that performance tonight, especially seeing what we were up against.”
Snodgrass scored 20 of Butler's 26 points in the final 8 minutes, sinking all 14 of his free throws. His three field goals all occurred on drives to the basket.
“Bobby (Swartwout) was our big scorer last year and we looked to go to him in tough situations,” Snodgrass said. “I know a lot of that is on me this year.
“I've been working hard at picking up my game offensively because I have to take on more of the scoring now.”
Penn Hills figured that out in the fourth quarter. Stopping him was another matter.
“That kid is one of the best point guards in this area. He may be the best we'll see this year,” Indians coach Jim Rocco said. “We did what we could to deny him the ball, but he's so tough to guard.”
Snodgrass expects to draw plenty of attention as the season wears on.
“I'm sure I'll be double-teamed at times,” he said. “But that leaves somebody open. We've got to move the ball around and we'll do that.”
Penn Hills returns two starters from last year's 14-win team that lost in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs. Senior guard Shy Faulkner wasn't one of them.
Faulkner scored 12 of his team-leading 15 points in the first quarter as the Indians jumped out to a 19-6 lead in the first 8 minutes.
“The film we saw on them, that No. 12 (Faulkner) didn't play,” Clement said. “We got ambushed there. That kid is really quick and we didn't expect to deal with that.”Butler switched to a zone in the second quarter and the Indians' offense disappeared. Penn Hills sank only 7-of-29 field goal attempts in the middle two periods.The Tornado trailed 22-8 with 6:32 left in the second quarter before using a 14-0 run to tie the game with 2:07 left in the half. A free throw by Matt Baranchak gave Butler a 25-24 lead — its first of the game — with 36 seconds left. Trevor Wideman canned a short jumper off a turnover to give the Tornado a 27-24 halftime lead.Butler never trailed in the second half.“Matt and Trevor gave us some quality minutes there in the second quarter when we had a couple of guys with two fouls on them,” Clement said. “This was a choppy game.“We made a lot of mistakes, but a lot of guys did some good things.”Luke Hartung had 13 of 46 Butler rebounds. David Tompkins grabbed seven boards, Baranchak six. Hartung and Cody West sank treys on consecutive possessions to give the Tornado a six-point lead midway through the third period.Butler opened the game by missing its first 10 shots.“We will shoot the ball much better than we did tonight,” Clement said.Penn Hills trailed by 14 (51-37) with 3:14 remaining, but cut the gap to six at 51-45 with 1:51 to play.“We gave ourselves a shot because we got the ball inside,” Rocco said. “Any zone defense crumbles when you get it inside.“Then we decided to start chucking it again and that was it.”A Wideman layup gave Butler a 55-47 lead with 1:20 left and Snodgrass free throws salted the game away from there.“We couldn't guard them man-to-man because we couldn't stay in front of them,” Snodgrass said. “They weren't shooting all that well, so zone was the way to go.”Chaz Whittaker had 10 of 40 Penn Hills rebounds. Butler had 18 turnovers to the Indians' 16.<B></B>BUTLER 63Nate Snodgrass 7-13 17-20 31, Cody West 1-11 0-0 3, Trevor Wideman 4-5 0-0 8, Jake Hilliard 3-4 0-0 6, Dom Pusateri 1-5 0-0 2, Luke Hartung 2-12 1-2 7, Matt Baranchak 1-1 1-4 3, David Tompkins 0-1 3-4 3, Keenan Krause 0-1 0-0 0. <B>Totals:</B> 19-53 22-30 63.<B>PENN HILLS 52</B>Chaz Whittaker 4-9 0-2 8, Will Warren 4-6 1-2 10, Savon Salter 1-3 0-0 2, Shy Faulkner 7-23 1-3 15, Jordyn Glaze 1-13 2-3 4, DeAndre Winbush 1-1 0-0 2, Derrick Smith 4-12 2-4 11, Willie James 0-0 0-2 0. <B>Totals:</B> 22-66 6-14 52.<B>Butler 6 21 10 26—63Penn Hills 19 5 11 17—523-point goals:</B> Butler 3 (Hartung 2, West); Penn Hills 2 (Warren, Smith).<B>Saturday:</B> Butler vs. Mt. Lebanon, 8 p.m., championship game of Penn Hills Tip-Off Classic
