CHURCHILL — On a night when grit was needed, Butler displayed plenty of it.

The Golden Tornado answered a 13-0 Woodland Hills run with a 17-0 run of their own in a 47-38 boys basketball victory over the Wolverines Tuesday night.

"When you come down to Woodland Hills for a football or basketball game, you know you're going to be in a physical game against outstanding athletes," Butler coach Matt Clement said. "You can't back down. If you do, the score's 20-2 in a heartbeat."

Butler (3-0) built a 19-8 lead with 7:36 left in the first half before the Wolverines (1-2) used their 13-0 run to assume a 21-19 advantage. The Tornado sank only one field goal and turned the ball over seven times in the second period.

Woodland Hills' Chaz Hampton, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, stuck back an offensive rebound and 6-5 sophomore forward Shakim Alonzo canned a short jumper off a turnover to extend the Wolverines' lead to 27-21 less than a minute into the third quarter.

"They were beginning to impose their will on us with their athleticism," Clement said. "We made a switch defensively and began trapping the ball on their first pass.

"The kids executed it perfectly."

And how.

The Tornado scored the next 17 points to seize control of the contest. Jeff Tompkins sank a short jumper and completed a three-point play to get the run started as Butler began scoring in transition.

Hampton and Alonzo combined to record 30 of Woodland Hills' 38 points and 23 of its 33 rebounds. When they were denied the ball, the Wolverines' offense was paralyzed.

"That affected our defense," Wolverines coach Dave Krakoff said. "Our full-court pressure was effective most of the night, but we couldn't get into it because we weren't scoring baskets.

"Butler runs a lot of nice half-court sets. They were better than us once the pace of this game changed."

Woodland Hills sank just five of 26 field goal attempts in the second half.

When the 17-0 run ended, Butler had a 38-27 lead with 6:40 left in the game. The Wolverines crept within 44-38 with 28.5 seconds left on a pair of Alonzo 3-pointers, but the Tornado sealed the win at the foul line.

Bobby Swartwout sank five of six free throws in the fourth quarter, seven of nine for the game. The rest of the Tornado sank only 11 of 27 from the line.

"That was a blip in the radar," Clement insisted. "We shoot 30 to 100 free throws every day. Normally, you don't win a game missing as many free throws as we did tonight, but our kids found a way.

"I give our guys credit. Their goal was to be 3-0 going into our section opener and they've done that."

Swartwout paced Butler with 11 points and added six rebounds. Nate Snodgrass had eight points, David Tompkins and Brian Jendesky had seven each off the bench. Jeff Tompkins had nine rebounds.

"Jeff Tompkins, Brian Jendesky, David Tompkins — those were the heroes tonight," Clement said. "We don't win this game without them.

"And Logan Renwick's defense has been incredible. He shut down a big scorer at Keystone Oaks in our last game, then guards a 6-5 kid who was the best athlete in the gym tonight. The only points that kid got while Logan was guarding him was on offensive rebounds," the coach added.

"We're a good defensive team, but our offense needs to get better," Krakoff said. "Butler plays great defense and they have a bunch of hard-nosed kids who work hard. They earned that win tonight."

The Tornado's home opener against North Hills Friday night also is their section opener.

"This is where it starts," Clement said. "We have to climb every rung of the ladder in the section. North Hills blew us out twice in basketball last year and they blew us out in football this year.

"We're clearly the underdog Friday. Now it's up to us to prove we're going to be (in the section race) this year."

BUTLER 47Nate Snodgrass 2-4 4-7 8, Eli Christy 0-1 0-0 0, Logan Renwick 1-5 0-4 2, Brian Jendesky 3-8 1-2 7, Cody Herald 1-1 0-0 3, Jeff Tompkins 2-3 1-1 5, Vinny Schmidt 2-3 0-3 4, Bob Swartwout 2-5 7-9 11, David Tompkins 1-2 5-10 7. Totals: 14-33 18-36 47

WOODLAND HILLS 38Dahrayl Smith 0-2 0-1 0, William Dabbs 2-13 1-2 5, Charles Awkward 0-2 0-1 0, Shakim Alonzo 7-18 0-0 16, Devin Naylor 0-0 0-4 0, Brian McGuigan 0-1 0-0 0, Joe Lofton 1-5 1-2 3, Chaz Hampton 6-11 2-2 14. Totals: 16-52 4-14 38

Butler 16 5 14 12—47Woodland Hills 8 15 4 11—383-point goals: Butler 1 (Herald); Woodland Hills 2 (Alonzo 2).

Junior varsity: Butler, 49-29 (B: Jake Hilliard 12, David Tompkins 10; WH: Jameer Dutrieville 11)

Friday: North Hills at Butler