Believe it or not
BUTLER TWP — Score only 10 field goals and beat Jeannette on the basketball court? Ridiculous.
Incredulous, actually.
Butler sank 20 of 23 free throws Tuesday night and held off the Jayhawks for a 41-36 win in the Butler Christmas Tournament championship game.
The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the defending PIAAClass AAchampions and improved the Golden Tornado to 12-0 in Butler Christmas Tournament games during Joe Lewandowski's coaching tenure.
"We had a lot of kids step up to the line and knock down some crucial free throws to seal this one,"Lewandowski said.
Jeannette (7-3) began the night averaging 64 points per game. The Jayhawks scored 11 in the first quarter, then went scoreless in the second period, missing all 13 of their shots from the field.
"Eleven points in the first half?None in the second quarter?That may have never happened before in Jeannette history,"Lewandowski said.
Jeannette scoring whiz Jordan Hall, who averages 25 points per game, played sparingly and scored nine points on three 3-pointers.
"I wasn't going to play him more than 10 minutes tonight,"Jayhawks coach Jim Nesser said. "He'd been sick and has been out for a week and a half.
"Their zone gave us fits in the first half. They play it well, with a lot of tall kids with long arms and the big guy in the middle. We adjusted at halftime and ran our offense better in the second half."
Butler (5-5) took a 17-11 lead into intermission before a third-quarter Jeannette rally, capped by a Hall 3-pointer, knotted the game at 22 with 56 seconds left in the period.
Two free throws by tournament MVPBobby Swartwout gave Butler the lead for good with 30 seconds remaining in the quarter.
Still, Jeannette wouldn't go away. AMoziah Harris layup and an 8-footer by Greg Williams pulled the Jayhawks within 36-35 with 1:20 left.
Freshman point guard Nate Snodgrass hit both ends of a one-and-one with 1:09 left, then hit the front end of another with 14 seconds left, giving the Tornado a 39-36 edge.
Snodgrass missed his second free throw, but Jeff Tompkins snared the offensive rebound. Swartwout sealed the verdict by canning a pair of free throws with 5.1 seconds on the clock.
While the Tornado sank 20 of 23 free throws, Jeannette hit five of 11.
"We're on the road, we play a physical style. ... It just didn't work out for us tonight,"Nesser said.
While Swartwout got the MVP award, a number of Butler players contributed to the win.
"Nate did a great job running the floor and beating their pressure,"Lewandowski said. "Bobby produced inside and rebounded, Tompkins made big plays, Brian Jendesky was a warrior in both games."Logan Renwick did a great job guarding Hall. ... I could go on and on. We don't worry about personal accolades on this team. We knew we couldn't press them with their athletes, so we relied on an aggressive zone and it worked."Jeannette's 36 points marked a season-low.Swartwout paced Butler with 16 points and eight rebounds. Jendesky added nine points and Tompkins had four steals.Moziah led Jeannette with 13 points and eight boards.<B>Knoch 60, Summit Academy 47 — </B>Knoch (5-5) won the consolation game as Michael Gallagher scored 24 points, including four 3-pointers, and Jake McTighe contributed 18 points and seven rebounds."It all starts by getting the ball inside,"Knoch coach Chris Andreassi said of his offense. "Our guards need to understand that by getting it in there, it increases their chances to score."Michael was getting a lot of back-door layup opportunities. That's just what we want him to do."Summit Academy (3-6) had a 38-23 edge in rebounding and turned the ball over 16 times after suffering 36 turnovers against Butler the previous night.Derek Rawls, who was unavailable Monday, scored 13 points and grabbed six boards to pace Summit. Keith Banichar added 11 points and Jalik Peay seven rebounds."We played much better tonight,"Summit coach Cliff Guy said. "We didn't bring a couple of players back from Monday because of attitude, pouting or talking smack. We don't do those things."I like the way our team is progressing."Butler's David Schmidt won the 3-point shooting contest by sinking 13 in the finals, including eight in a row at one point. Greg Williams of Jeannette finished second with 12 points.<B>Championship GameJEANNETTE 36Jordan Hall 3-7 0-0 9, Darius Brown 0-2 0-0 0, Cameron Baradzeij 1-7 1-4 3, Lamar Grant 0-2 0-0 0, Dane Vaughn 1-3 0-0 2, Moziah Harris 5-10 3-3 13, Greg Williams 2-9 1-2 5, Brian Weightman 2-3 0-0 4. </B>Totals: 14-43 5-11 36<B>BUTLER 41Cole Harvey 0-4 0-0 0, Eric King 0-0 0-0 0, Brian Jendesky 3-5 3-6 9, Logan Renwick 0-1 0-0 0, Jeff Tompkins 3-4 0-0 6, Nate Snodgrass 1-3 5-6 8, David Schmidt 0-0 0-0 0, Bobby Swartwout 3-7 10-11 16.</B> Totals: 10-24 20-23 41<B>Jeannette 11 0 11 14—36Butler 10 7 7 17—413-point goals:</B> Hall 3; Snodgrass<B>JV:</B> Butler, 51-34 (B:Cody Herald 13, Vinny Schmidt 13; J:Chris Smith 19, Matt Shrum 13)<B>Saturday:</B> Butler at New Castle<B>Consolation GameSUMMIT ACADEMY 47Rafiq Blakely 1-4 0-1 3, Keith Banichar 5-15 0-0 11, Louis Luzon 0-1 0-0 0, Tauvea Hart 0-5 12-2 1, Rashion Edwards 1-3 1-1 3, Chandler Smalls 4-5 0-0 8, Kevin Goodman 1-5 1-1 3, Jalik Peay 2-5 1-5 5, Derek Rawls 5-9 3-8 13. </B>Totals: 19-52 7-18 47<B>KNOCH 60Kevin Wood 0-1 0-0 0, Ethan Danner 0-2 0-0 0, Chris Cetnar 2-6 2-2 6, Andrew Wirtz 2-3 3-4 8, Jake McTighe 9-14 0-3 18, Micah Lio 2-2 0-0 4, Michael Gallagher 9-20 2-2 24, Adam Seger 0-0 0-0 0.</B> Totals: 24-48 7-11 60<B>Summit Academy 12 17 5 13—47Knoch 16 16 11 17—603-point goals:</B> Blakely, Banichar; Wirtz, Gallagher 4<B>JV:</B> Knoch, 41-31 (K:Adam Seger 10, Jake Hickey 9; SA:Isiah Davis 19)<B>Tuesday:</B> Highlands at Knoch, Summit Academy at Mohawk<B>Tournament MVP:</B> Bobby Swartwout (Butler)<B>All-Tournament Team:</B> Michael Gallagher (Knoch), Jake McTighe (Knoch), Moziah Harris (Jeannette), Dane Vaughn (Jeannette), Nate Snodgrass (Butler)
