Butler boys basketball doomed by turnovers, rebounding issues in WPIAL section loss at New Castle
NEW CASTLE — After wiping away the first blow, Butler subjected itself to a 1-2-3 combo.
The Golden Tornado tripped into an early hole during the first frame of Friday night’s boys basketball clash on the road at New Castle, but wound up with a lead by the time the second arrived.
Midway through that quarter, however, three sequential Butler giveaways yielded a six-point swing — one it couldn’t overcome in a 69-46 WPIAL Section 1-6A setback.
Stainton Forbes’ successful trip to the free-throw line gave the Golden Tornado a 20-18 lead with 5:05 left until halftime. A turnover on the team’s following possession gave way to a foul and a 1 for 2 effort by the Red Hurricanes’ Kai Cox. Andrew Gettinger’s foot crossed the boundary on the ensuing inbounding attempt, leading to a whistle and the ball being given to the hosts.
Ralphie Blundo then knocked down a 3-pointer before picking Ayden Andrews’ pocket near midcourt and breaking away for an effortless lay-in.
Just like that, 24-20.
“The whole game felt like that sequence,” Butler coach Matt Clement said.
The Golden Tornado (11-6, 4-6) had a bevy of errant passes skip out of bounds, ball handling issues and even a kicked dribble during the first two quarters.They coughed up 16 turnovers just in the first half.
“Turnovers — unforced turnovers — have been our Achilles heel the whole year,” Clement said. “Not forced. Unforced turnovers. Sure, they forced a few of them, yeah. They played good defense. It’s the story of the game.”
“I think our ball pressure was pretty good tonight,” New Castle coach Ralph Blundo said, “and that was really the difference. We kind of forced them away from the hoop, maybe started their offense a little further away than they wanted to.”
Butler’s issues compounded as the Red Hurricanes (13-3, 7-3) collected 18 of their own 42 missed tries. The Golden Tornado had just five offensive boards on the night.
“I thought that our guys were really aggressive around the rim tonight, and that obviously helped us win the basketball game with some extra possessions,” the elder Blundo said.
New Castle entered the midway point on an 11-3 run. All but nine of its points in the initial half came via turnovers.
“I don’t know if we had trouble running the offense,” Clement said. “We turned it over before we got in the offense.”
The final two points of that surge late in the first half came after yet another Butler gift. Cox calmly ran time off the clock while being hemmed into the top right corner of his team’s half. The ball ended up with Damian Harrison, who put it in. The Golden Tornado missed a deep try to end the period, one in which they only bucketed six points.
New Castle didn’t relent, going 14 of 29 (48.2%) from the floor the rest of the way. Kingsten Russell’s layup with 55 ticks left gave the home team its largest lead of the night and also finished the scoring.
Butler 16 6 11 13 — 46
New Castle 13 16 21 19 — 69
BUTLER 46
Stainton Forbes 4 4-4 14, Andrew Gettinger 4 8-9 12, Ayden Andrews 2 0-0 6, Tayt Lucas 2 0-0 4, Kyle Casteel 1 0-0 3, Mavrik Clement 0 1-2 1, Zavyr Gregory 0 1-2 1. Totals: 13 14-17 46.
NEW CASTLE 69
Kai Cox 7 1-2 16, Damian Harrison 6 2-2 14, Ralphie Blundo 4 1-1 11, Qualin Davis 5 0-0 10, Chase Lemmon 3 0-0 9, Kyrell Harris 3 0-0 7, Kingsten Russell 1 0-0 2. Totals: 29 4-5 69.
3-point goals: New Castle 7 (Lemmon 3, Blundo 2, Harris, Cox); Butler 6 (Andrews 2, Forbes 2, Casteel, Gettinger)
Tuesday: Butler at Woodland Hills, 7:30
