Butler edges Moon, 51-50
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It had been a long time since Butler's basketball team had felt something like this. So the players celebrated long and loud.
About 15 minutes after the game ended, shouts and yells still emanated from the locker room.
Butler had won a playoff game.
Butler won its first postseason game in more than a decade when it edged Moon, 51-50, in a WPIAL Class AAAA first-round game Thursday night at North Allegheny. Bobby Swartwout hit two free throws with 1.3 seconds left to give Butler a four-point lead before Moon's Brett Hoffman swished a shot from three-quarter court at the buzzer.
It was Butler's first playoff win since 2000, when coach Gene Rodgers guided the Golden Tornado to the championship game before losing to Penn Hills. Matt Clement was in spring training that year, pitching for the San Diego Padres. Now he's Butler's second-year coach.
"How many years has it been since Butler won a playoff game?" Clement said to reporters after the game.
When informed it was 11 years, Clement said: "I wasn't sure, but I knew it was long and I told the kids that. But before the game, I told them, 'You can't change the past. But you can make history now.' For Butler right now, this is history."
Moon coach Jeff Ackermann, in his 10th season, was 7-0 in first-round games.
"But one playoff win is not enough for us," Clement said. "Hopefully, we aren't by any means done. But wherever the rest of the postseason takes us, we left a mark."
It was some expert marksmanship that turned this game in Butler's favor. Butler (13-9) trailed at halftime, 24-17, and shot only 33 percent (8 of 24) from the field against Moon's zone defenses.
But Butler hit five 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the third quarter to grab a 36-31 lead. Zach Slater made three. Even 6-6 big man Swartwout nailed one. Swartwout finished with a team-high 18 points and Slater had 13.
"There haven't been too many games where we've struggled shooting this year," Clement said. "I don't know if we struggled in the first half. I think we just got tentative."
Another key to the game was Butler switched from a man-to-man defense to a 1-3-1 in the second quarter. It seemed to throw off Moon. The Tigers (15-8) had trouble getting the ball to senior forward Aaron Johnson, who averages 24 points a game. Johnson had only three field-goal attempts in the third quarter and finished with 20 points. Senior guard Brett Hoffman added 16.
Johnson scored off an out-of-bounds play to tie the score, 45-45, with 2:49 left. Cody Herald scored a layup for Butler with 1:25 remaining to give the Golden Tornado the lead for good. Trailing 49-47, Moon had the ball late in the game, but Hoffman missed a 3-pointer with 15 seconds remaining. Slater missed a free throw, but Moon turned the ball over with three seconds left before Swartwout's free throws iced the win.
"We had a bunch of seniors who wanted to go another game, if not more," Clement said. "They were the ones who came through."
First Published February 25, 2011 12:00 am
