JACKSON TWP— With eight seconds left, Christos Klutinoty had a chance to ice the game and failed.

So with no seconds left, he won it.

Butler's senior guard sank a free throw with no time on the clock Tuesday night, giving the Golden Tornado a 59-58 boys basketball triumph at Seneca Valley.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Raiders (14-6, 6-4). The win enables Butler (11-7, 4-5) to stay in control of its playoff destiny.

"This is a huge win for us for that reason,"Tornado coach Joe Lewandowski said.

Neither team ever led by more than six points in the second half. Butler had a 54-48 advantage with 3:35 left and was primed to protect a slim lead for the final seven minutes of the game.

But Butler's Cody Fleeger missed two free throws with 33.3 seconds left and the Tornado clinging to a 58-56 lead. Then Klutinoty missed a pair with 8.3 seconds on the clock.

The Tornado's Mike Pratkanis grabbed the rebound after Klutinoty's second errant free throw, but missed a layup and fouled Seneca Valley's C.J. Brown with 5.3 seconds to go.

Brown sank both free throws to tie the score.

"Those were two big free throws,"Raiders coach Vic Giannotta said. "This game should have gone into overtime."

But it was not to be.

Despite having a timeout left, Butler didn't use it. The Tornado's Jeff Tompkins inbounded the ball to point guard Jeff Slater, who found Klutinoty open on the right wing.

"I ball faked, got the defender in the air, then he got me on the arm as I went up for the shot,"Klutinoty said.

With no time on the clock, the officials huddled, then sent Klutinoty to the free throw line alone.

"Keep your eye on the rim, follow through and just shoot it,"Klutinoty said. "Ihad to make that shot for Coach Lewandowski. And we needed this game."

"I told the kids before (Brown's)free throws that we weren't going to call time if he made them,"Lewandowski said. "We didn't want to give them time to set up a defense. We wanted a scramble there.

"With five seconds left ... that's 10 dribbles. We had plenty of time. Our kids made some good decisions on that last play."

Giannotta had a different perspective.

"This game should be in overtime," he said. "A less than obvious foul like that, in that situation ... you can't make that call. That was a bad call."

Butler's Nick Rossmiller fouled out midway through the third quarter when he was called for a technical foul after picking up his fourth personal. Pratkanis and Fleeger played much of the second half with four fouls.

Pratkanis fouled out when he sent Brown to the line. John Fitzpatrick fouled out for the Raiders with 2:18 left in the game.

There were 43 personal fouls called in the game.

"Refs are refs,"Giannotta said. "Butler played good defense on us in the third quarter. They deserved to win."

The Tornado jumped out to an 18-6 lead with 7:09 left in the first half as Seneca Valley missed 14 of its first 16 shots from the floor. The Raiders scored 26 points in the second quarter to assume a 32-29 halftime lead.

Seneca Valley sank 12 of 15 free throws during the second period.

Fleeger paced Butler with 16 points, hitting four 3-pointers. Pratkanis had 15 points and five rebounds while Klutinoty scored 11 points.

Brown had 11 points and eight boards for Seneca Valley and Sean Gress had 11 points. Matt Vogt scored 10 points off the bench for the Raiders.

BUTLER 59Mike Pratkanis 6-12 3-4 15, Jeff Slater 1-3 2-2 4, Cody Fleeger 6-9 0-2 16, Austin Snodgrass 0-1 3-4 3, Logan Renwick 0-0 0-0 0, Nick Rossmiller 2-2 0-0 4, Jeff Tompkins 3-4 0-0 6, Ryan Melder 0-1 0-0 0, Christos Klutinoty 3-10 3-6 11, Nick Powers 0-1 0-0 0.

Totals: 21-43 11-18 59

SENECA VALLEY 58Sean Gress 2-7 6-6 11, Nate Hermann 2-8 3-4 7, Dan Rohm 2-6 2-2 7, C.J. Brown 3-7 5-10 11, John Fitzpatrick 1-6 0-0 3, Dustin Anewalt 1-1 0-0 2, Matt Vogt 3-4 4-6 10, Ryan Turner 1-2 0-0 2, Christian Durbin 1-3 2-2 5, Tony Tresser 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 16-44 22-31 58

Butler 13 16 14 16—59Seneca Valley 6 26 9 17—583-point goals: Fleeger 4, Klutinoty 2; Gress, Rohm, Fitzpatrick, Durbin

JV: Seneca Valley, 52-45 (SV:Joe Belechat 15, Evan Mitro 11, Matt Vogt 10, B:David Schmidt 8

Friday: Pine-Richland at Butler, Seneca Valley at North Hills