Butler beats Bishop Guilfoyle, 73-64, at Holiday Bash
WEXFORD — For as artful as Braylon Littlejohn can be with finishing at the hoop, his craftiest work came from outside the arc Thursday night.
With the minutes waning in Butler’s 73-64 neutral-site win over Bishop Guilfoyle, the shifty Golden Tornado senior happily shared a spotlight with the Marauders’ Taurean Consiglio. He’d maneuver around his opponent on the right wing, only to willingly retreat back to the spot from which he came and reach into his bag of tricks for a third or fourth time.
Help was slow to come — and Littlejohn was content with finding different ways to beat an iso while sitting on a five-point lead with under four minutes to go.
“With my ability to get past people, get back to where I need to be, and handles; I feel like that’ll waste some time,” Littlejohn said. “Just keeping my stamina up and trying to keep running time out until I find a good shot or someone else finds a good shot.”
Butler (6-1) wasn’t trying to intentionally sit on the ball, but no one wearing white was doing anything about it.
“If you’re going to put him one-on-one — and we’re the team that’s up six or seven — I’m not trying to hold the ball until the end of the game,” Golden Tornado coach Matt Clement said. “But, if you want to put him on the foul line, he’s a great foul shooter.
“If he wanted to be selfish, he would’ve drove and tried to get to the foul line and score 38 tonight instead of 30. But, he wanted to win the game, so he was like, ‘We’ll do this.’”
The wherewithal surprised Bishop Guilfoyle (6-1), which had to watch as precious time ticked away at the Holiday Bash Basketball Showcase at North Allegheny High School.
“That probably caught us a little off-guard,” Marauders coach Ryan Lestochi said. “I didn’t see that coming from them. ... You’re not always going to be in the lead. You’ve got to figure out ways to come back.”
After at least 45 seconds of taking in the singles play, fellow senior Ayden Davis knocked down a three-pointer and added to the cushion.
“That really crushes people,” Clement said. “When you run a little bit of time off the clock, then a guy makes a three or you get an offensive rebound, that’s something we’ve improved on.”
Bishop Guilfoyle entered the matchup having won its first six contests by an average of 29.3 points per game. The Marauders shot 14-for-26 (53.8%) from the field on the way to a 41-40 midway advantage and led by as much as eight in the initial 16 minutes.
“The first half, we were kind of executing the way we wanted — use ball fakes, attack the rim, play off two,” Lestochi said. “Our problem was, defensively, we really had trouble getting stops, getting help from the backside.
“No. 5 (Littlejohn) and No. 2 (Donovan Carney) were just studs tonight and we had a tough time with them.”
Butler limited them to just 23 points in the second half.
“Fortunately, our guys made enough shots to keep it close,” Clement said. “They got, like, a six-, seven-point lead a couple times I felt like. We were able to withstand their best — and our hope is that it’s hard to keep that pace of shooting up.
“They were hot from the outside and with some offensive boards.”
The lead changed hands six times in the third frame before a Littlejohn bucket gave the Golden Tornado a 52-51 edge with 3:21 left in the quarter. A little over two minutes later, Carney recaptured his own missed trey attempt and walked it to the basket to open a five-point gap.
Clement also lauded how his side boxed out on the night.
“I saw dudes that were in for one minute fighting their butts off to box out and just doing the right thing,” Clement said. “A lot of people did the right thing to win that game tonight.”
Off the bench, Stainton Forbes had a team-best five rebounds and added seven points.
Littlejohn’s 30 points were a game-high. He also had four boards and three steals. Carney chipped in with 13 points, three rebounds, and two assists.
For Bishop Guilfoyle, Danny Haigh led with 20 points and had three rebounds and two assists.
BUTLER 73
Braylon Littlejohn 10 8-9 30, Donovan Carney 6 0-0 13, Tayt Lucas 2 3-4 9, Stainton Forbes 3 0-0 7, Ayden Davis 1 2-4 5, Jordan Epps 1 0-0 3, Coleton Welter 1 0-2 3, Andrew Gettinger 1 0-0 2, Andrew Lucas 0 1-2 1. Totals: 25 14-21 73.
BISHOP GUILFOYLE 64
Danny Haigh 7 4-4 20, Taurean Consiglio 5 0-0 12, Trevor Rehm 4 0-0 8, Hamilton Gates 3 2-2 8, Jake Kissell 3 1-3 8, Nick Foor 2 0-0 4, Chase Kissell 1 0-1 2. Totals: 26 7-10 64.
Butler 16 24 18 15 — 73
Bishop Guilfoyle 17 24 15 8 — 64
3-point goals: Butler 9 (Littlejohn 2, Lucas 2, Welter, Forbes, Epps, Carney, Davis); Bishop Guilfoyle 5 (Haigh 2, Consiglio 2, J. Kissell)
