PLUM — On Monday, the Butler boys basketball team showed it could battle back from an early deficit.

Unfortunately, Plum showed it could do so as well.

The Tornado had erased an early seven-point deficit against Plum and built a 10-point lead late in the first half, but the Mustangs went on a 25-4 run and held on for a 61-56 victory in the season finale for both squads.

"They just made some shots," said Butler coach Joe Lewandowski on the Mustangs' big run. "No. 24 (Andrew Cressler) had a nice quarter. We know he's a nice player, one of the best in the WPIAL.

"We took away his sets ... but he was able to get them off the backboard,"Lewandowski added.

Cressler scored the Mustangs' first six points of the second quarter, but he did most of his damage just before halftime.

With Butler (7-14) holding a 32-22 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the half, Plum (10-12) closed out the frame on a 10-2 run, including eight points from Cressler, to pull Plum to 34-32.

The Mustangs weren't through as they opened the second half scoring 17 of the first 19 points to take a 49-36 lead with 1:03 left in the third quarter.

Anthony DeAngelo regained his hot hand as he scored six of those points. He had scored the Mustangs first 11 points of the game, including three 3-pointers, before the Tornado held him in check.

The Tornado scored just four points in a 10:21 span before Jeff Tompkins drained a 3-pointer with three seconds left.

"We shot 1-of-12 from the field in the third quarter," said Lewandowski. "Another big thing is we missed some free throws in the first quarter."

Still, Butler did not go away quietly. With Plum enjoying a 51-39 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the Tornado used a 3-pointer by Vinny Schmidt, a free throw by Bob Swartwout, another 3-pointer by Logan Renwick and a basket by Swartwout in a 9-2 run that made it a 53-48 contest with 1:28 remaining.

Butler cut it to a one-possession game, 59-56, with 13 seconds left when Swartwout buried a 3-pointer, but a pair of free throws by Plum's Bobby Theiss with 9.7 seconds sealed the game.

Swartwout had a strong first half, scoring 14 of his game-high 24 points, and was a key component in the team's 22-7 run in the first half to take a double-digit lead.

Cressler led the Mustangs with 22 points while DeAngelo added 17.

Despite the loss, Lewandowski was upbeat about the potential from this year's team and the experience they gained.

"Eric King and David Schmidt are two seniors who played extremely hard all year and they gave a lot of effort," said Lewandowski.

"This was the youngest team ever at Butler. Nate Snodgrass broke every freshman record, sophomore Bobby Swartwout was our leading scorer and guys like Vinny Schmidt and Jeff Tompkins and Brian Jendesky all led us in scoring in some games.

"We brought back about 0.5 percent scoring from last season and now we'll have about 99.5 percent back," Lewandowski added.

BUTLER 56Brian Jendesky 1 1-5 3, Eric King 1 0-0 2, Logan Renwick 2 4-4 9, David Schmidt 0 0-0 0, Jeff Tompkins 2 2-2 7, Nate Snodgrass 2 2-2 8, Bob Swartwout 8 6-10 24, Vinny Schmidt 1 0-0 3, David Tompkins 0 0-0 0, Andrew Wick 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 17 15-23 56.

PLUM 61Tommy Messich 2 1-2 5, Anthony DeAngelo 7 0-0 17, Andrew Cressler 7 8-9 22, Nolan Cressler 2 0-0 5, Jordan Koshinsky 2 0-0 4, Jason Barbarino 0 0-0 0, Cole Alu 1 0-0 2, Bobby Theiss 2 2-2 6, Ryan Duke 0 0-0 0, Kenny Kruszka 0 0-0 0, Tarique Ellis 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 23 11-13 61.

Butler 13 21 5 17—56Plum 15 17 17 12—613-point goals: Snodgrass 2, Swartwout 2, Renwick, J. Tompkins, V. Schmidt; DeAngelo 3, N. Cressler

JV: Butler, 50-33 (B:David Tompkins 18)