BUTLER TWP— For Shady Side Academy, everything was going according to plan.

Execution of a puzzling 2-3 zone. A game in the 30's. A halftime lead on the road.

"Give me all that and I'd feel good about taking a win,"Indians coach Terence Parham said. "But we had two much trouble with that big kid."

That 'big kid' was Butler sophomore center Bobby Swartwout, who produced a career-high 23 points to go with 13 rebounds during the Golden Tornado's 38-34 boys basketball victory Saturday night.

Butler (3-3) managed only 12 points against Shady Side's zone in the first half, hitting five of 16 shots from the floor and attempting but one free throw.

"They play their zone very well,"Butler coach Joe Lewandowski said. "It's veryactive. They came out on our shooters and it was tough to figure out.

"In the second half, we decided to overload one side and dump the ball into Bobby. They didn't seem to have an answer for it."

Parham agreed.

"You can't teach size and we don't have any," he said.

The game was tied on seven occasions — the last at 27-27 with 7:24 to play. The lead changed hands six times and neither team ever led by more than five points.

"This was a perfect non-section game for us,"Lewandowski said. "A lot of our inexperienced guys got minutes on the floor in the fourth quarter of a tight game and they executed."

Swartwout was at the head of that class. He scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half and sank four of five free throws in the fourth quarter.

He stuck back an offensive rebound with 6:08 left to snap that 27-all tie and give the Tornado the lead for good. Moments later, Cole Harvey got to the hoop for a layup and Vinny Schmidt drained a trey for a 34-29 edge with 4:55 left.

Still, the Indians hung around. With his team trailing 36-31 late, Eddie Sheerer sank a 3-pointer — Shady Side's lone trey of the night — to cut the gap to 36-34 with 1:03 on the clock.

Schmidt missed the front end of a one-and-one with 42 seconds left and Shady Side had a chance. Sheerer missed an open 3-point shot, Billy Nickel grabbed the offensive rebound, but his hurried shot hit the backboard and never got to the rim.

Almost fittingly, Swartwout snared that rebound and sank two free throws with :00.2 seconds remaining to seal the deal.

"We weren't looking to shoot a three at the end there, but our best shooter got an open look," Parham said. "That was a good take.

"When Billy got the rebound, he had more time than he realized to get off a shot. He rushed things there."

The Tornado had a 25-16 edge in rebounds while Shady Side had just nine turnovers to Butler's 16.

Harvey added 10 points for Butler, but the offense belonged to Swartwout.

"We said at halftime, 'OK, big fella, we're going to you each time down the floor. Make some plays for us,'" Lewandowski said. "And he did.

"This isn't the ballet. It doesn't have to be pretty. It's basketball and we'll take the win."

Shady Side is coming off an 18-9 season and has three starters back. Jerome Barnes led the Indians with 14 points while Sheerer added 10.

"We didn't scout Butler at all. We knew nothing about them," Parham said. "We've had too many section games to worry about lately.

"Our goal was to come in here, play hard and compete."

SHADYSIDEACADEMY 34Eddie Sheerer 2-10 5-5 10, Cooper Handlesman 3-5 0-0 6, Timmy Egan 0-2 0-0 0, Billy Nickel 2-8 0—2 4, Jerome Barnes 7-10 0-0 14, Parker Nieman 0-1 0-0 0, Ben Cohen 0-1 0-0 0, John Bray 0-2 0-0 0.. Totals: 14-39 5-7 34

BUTLER 38Cole Harvey 4-9 0-0 10, Eric King 0-0 0-0 0, Brian Jendesky 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Renwick 0-1 2-2 2, Jeff Tompkins 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Snodgrass 0-1 0-0 0, Vinny Schmidt 1-5 0-1 3, David Schmidt 0-0 0-0 0, Bob Swartwout 8-12 7-8 23. Totals: 13-29 9-11 38

Shady Side Acad. 7 8 10 9—34Butler 7 5 13 13—383-point goals: Sheerer; Harvey 23, V.Schmidt

JV: Butler, 50-456 (B:Bill Smith 11, Cody Herald 10)

Tuesday: North Allegheny at Butler