BUTLER TWP— Five minutes remaining, down by 11 and your point guard is at the hospital.

The situation looked bleak for Butler.

The Golden Tornado rallied to force overtime on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Chris Klutinoty, however, before suffering a 56-48 boys basketball loss to Shaler Friday night.

"To tell the truth, once we got it to overtime, I'm surprised we didn't win,"Butler coach Joe Lewandowski said. "We're pretty good at winning close games. We pride ourselves on making the clutch plays to win those types of games."

Butler (4-5, 0-2) made a clutch play to extend this game.

Junior forward Dan Wirkowski canned two free throws to give Shaler (7-2, 2-1) a 47-44 lead with 10.3 seconds left in regulation. Sean Lowry got off a 3-point attempt from the right corner for the Tornado, but he missed it off the front of the rim.

Butler's Bill Coleman grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it back out to Klutinoty, who drained the game-tying trey just before the buzzer.

"Once their kid missed the first shot, we made a mistake in that everybody crashed the boards,"Shaler coach Howie Ruppert said. "That left No. 33 all by himself and the kid hit a clutch shot."

The Tornado took a 48-47 lead in the extra session on a Coleman free throw with 3:01 left. Shaler scored the game's final nine points, six of them belonging to senior guard Jimmy Kohan.

Kohan stole the ball in the backcourt twice and drove the other way for easy layups. He canned a pair of free throws down the stretch as well.

Butler got the ball in Lowry's hands on nearly every possession in overtime, and the senior forward repeatedly drove the lane. He was unable to get a shot to fall, however.

Lowry fueled the Tornado's fourth-quarter rally. Butler trailed 41-30 with 5:23 left when Klutinoty sank a jumper to get the deficit into single digits. Lowry then scored on three successive possessions, hitting a layup, a 3-pointer and sticking back an offensive rebound to cut the gap to 43-39 with 1:55 left.

Klutinoty sank a 3-pointer to cut the Shaler lead to one. Wirkowski made two free throws, and Lowry did the same to make the score 45-44 with 13 seconds remaining.

"Our kids battle all the time. They never give up,"Lewandowski said. "We see that all the time. Both teams battled hard in this game."

Butler had to battle without starting point guard Brian Deangelis, who left the game 25 seconds into the contest when he banged his head during a collision under the basket.

Deangelis was woozy as he was helped to the bench.

"He was still that way at halftime,"Lewandowski said. "That's when they decided to take him to the hospital just to get him checked out."

Ryan Melder and Clark Liebler manned the point guard spot the rest of the game. The lead changed hands six times in the second quarter and the score was even at halftime.

Shaler used a 9-0 run in the final four minutes of the third quarter to take a 36-27 lead into the fourth. The Titans' lead peaked at 11 moments later.

"When we pressured the ball and got the turnovers is when we built our lead,"Ruppert said. "We didn't play smart down the stretch when we frittered it away."

Butler had 15 turnovers to Shaler's 13. The Titans had a 33-27 edge in rebounds.

"Turnovers make a big difference,"Lewandowski said. "When we're not turning the ball over, we can play with anybody."

Wirkowski paced Shaler with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Kohan had 16 points, Justin Litwin 10 points and eight boards.

Lowry led Butler with 23 points and five rebounds. Fleeger had 12 points and Klutinoty 11.

SHALER56Dan Wirkowski 5-14 7-9 19, Eddie Sauer 2-6 3-7 8, Jeff Szczypinski 0-1 0-1 0, Jimmy Kohan 7-8 2-4 16, Dan Taylor 0-1 0-0 0, Ben Altmeyer 0-1 0-0 0, Kevin Barry 1-4 0-0 2, John Litwin 4-10 2-4 10, Jesse DellaValle 0-1 1-2 1. Totals: 19-45 15-27 56

BUTLER48Mike Pratkanis 0-2 0-0 0, Cody Fleeger 4-10 2-2 12, Bill Coleman 0-2 2-4 2, Brian Deangelis 0-0 0-0 0, Sean Lowry 6-18 10-10 23, Chris Klutinoty 4-8 0-0 11, Clark Liebler 0-1 0-0 0, Austin Snodgrass 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan Melder 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-42 14-16 48

Shaler 8 14 14 11 9—56Butler 7 15 5 20 1—483-point goals: Wirkowski 2, Sauer; Fleeger 2, Lowry, Klutinoty 3

JV: Butler, 58-40 (B-Jeff Slater 13, Matt Maloy 13; S-Ben Altmeyer 9, Jesse DellaValle 9)

Wednesday: Burrell atButler