ROSS TWP — Butler missed Tyler Frederick.

North Hills didn't miss free throws.

That combination proved too much to overcome in the Golden Tornado's 53-50 Section 3-AAAA boys basketball loss Friday night at North Hills.

Still battling a nagging injury, Frederick saw only a few minutes of playing time Friday night and did not score. He led Butler with 16 points and eight rebounds in a 71-62 win over the Indians Dec. 12.

“He seemed a step slow and was moving around gingerly out there,” Butler coach Matt Clement said of Frederick's status Friday. “Yeah, we missed him, but there are no excuses.

“It's tough ... You have to be careful for the kid's long-term health. We have a lot of games left and maybe this added rest will help him.”

North Hills (7-7, 4-3) never led by more than five points until Kindhal Taylor sank a pair of free throws for a 43-37 advantage with 4:58 left in the game. Butler's biggest lead all night was at 8-3 in the first quarter.

The Tornado's last lead was at 35-33 with 4:57 to play in the third period.

The Indians' lead peaked at 45-37 on a pair of Nick Smith free throws with 2:56 left. North Hills sank 10 of 11 free throws in the fourth quarter, 18 of 21 for the night.

“Foul shots were the difference tonight,” North Hills coach Buzz Gabos said. “We've lost some close games this year because we didn't make them.”

Butler (10-5, 3-4) managed to sink just four of 10 shots from the line.

“We didn't hit the ones we had and we didn't get enough of them,” Clement said. “This was a physical game and we came out on the wrong side of it.”

Layups by Justice Lewandowski and Keenan Krause pulled the Tornado within 45-41 with 1:44 remaining. Butler then got a quick steal, but missed a pair of free throws with 1:12 left. The visitors never got closer than four again until Andrew Paterno sank a meaningless 3-pointer at the final buzzer.

Taylor scored 17 points for North Hills — sinking nine of 11 free throws — while sophomore guard Smith netted 13, sinking all six of his foul shots.

“Those two are playing off each other really well,” Gabos said. “We're developing something there.

“No doubt, though, we got some help tonight with Frederick not playing. He's an all-section type of player and he's a handful to try to stop. He hurt us bad when we played in Butler.”

Nick Sabolovic had four assists and four steals for the Indians.

Justice Lewandowski paced Butler with 12 points. He scored the Tornado's first eight points of the contest, hitting two early treys. Paterno sank three treys and scored 10 points. Mark Gross had six points, six rebounds and three assists, Krause six points and three assists. Through three quarters, seven of Butler's 13 field goals were treys. By contrast, North Hills sank 17 of 30 shots from the floor, making only one 3-pointer.

“Some of those long rebounds off our missed outside shots ... That's where we missed Tyler,” Clement admitted. “He snatches up a lot of those and sticks them in.”

The Tornado did have a 25-18 advantage in rebounds.

“Their defense comes out aggressively on the ball,” Gabos said. “It's hard to set up many outside shots against Butler. I thought we did a good job of getting the ball inside and drawing contact.”

BUTLER 50

Kaden Rock 0-1 0-0 0, Jace Stutz 2-7 0-0 6, Justice Lewandowski 5-11 0-0 12, Keenan Krause 3-6 0-0 6, Andrew Paterno 3-7 1-2 10, Tyler Frederick 0-3 0-0 0, Jake Anderson 3-5 1-2 7, Joel Stutz 1-1 0-0 3, Eric Hindman 0-0 0-0 0, Mark Gross 2-4 2-6 6. Totals: 19-45 4-10 50.

NORTH HILLS 53

Nick Smith 3-7 6-6 13, Matt Reiner 0-0 0-0 0, Kindhal Taylor 4-7 9-11 17, Nick Sabolovic 3-5 0-0 6, Luke Chutko 3-3 2-2 8, Andrew Vojko 4-8 1-2 9, Drew Schwab 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 17-30 18-21 53.

Butler 11 15 9 15 — 50

North Hills11 19 9 14 — 53

3-point goals: Ja.Stutz 2, Lewandowski 2, Paterno 3, Jo.Stutz; Smith

JV: North Hills, 60-58 (B: Kaden Rock 15, Connor Ollio 11; NH: Andrew Paulauskis 17, Taylor Kamin 15, Jarel Rozanski 11)

Tuesday: Shaler at Butler