BUTLER TWP — A long memory enabled Butler to make short work of Pine-Richland Tuesday night.

The Golden Tornado jumped out to a 15-3 lead in the first four minutes and rolled to a 66-39 Section 3-AAAA boys basketball victory over Pine-Richland in the Butler gym.

“We talked before the game about putting together a complete 32 minutes tonight,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “That's something we hadn't done.

“By far, this was the best game we've played this year — definitely, our most complete game.”

About this time last year, the Tornado (7-4, 2-1) lost a 13-point lead in the second half at Pine-Richland and ultimately lost the game.

“I hated to bring up a bad memory, but we had to be reminded of that. That loss was heartbreaking and we didn't want to let it happen again,” Clement said.

Butler's biggest lead of Tuesday night was the final margin of victory. After that initial 15-3 spurt, Pine-Richland (3-6, 0-2) pulled within 17-10 with 2:30 left in the opening quarter.

A trey by Nate Snodgrass and layup by Trevor Wideman — off an assist from Snodgrass — upped the Butler lead to 22-10 by quarter's end.

The Rams never got the deficit out of double digits from there.

“We got in a bunch of foul trouble tonight and that didn't help,” Pine-Richland coach Brian Gaetano said. “We have some guys injured and got a couple more hurt tonight, which also didn't help.

“Bottom line is, there are no excuses. We played bad. We were coming off a nice effort at Altoona (58-30 win) and three really good practices. I thought we'd come out with a lot of fire and purpose tonight.

“We didn't. They did. That about sums it up,” Gaetano added.

Three players fouled out for the Rams and Butler sank 25 of 31 free throws.

Snodgrass had 24 points and five assists for the Tornado. David Tompkins had 15 points and nine rebounds, including three layups and four boards in the first three minutes to trigger Butler's quick start.

“Really, it was all about defense for us tonight,” Tompkins said. “That was our mindset going into this game because we hadn't been playing good defense consistently.”

The Tornado forced 17 turnovers while turning it over just seven times themselves. Pine-Richland connected on 16 of 22 free throws, but made only 11 field goals.

Andy Andrle, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, paced the Rams with 17 points, but never got on a roll offensively. No Pine-Richland player had more than four rebounds.

“Holding them to 39 points comes down to Trevor Wideman, Dom Pusateri and Jake Hilliard keeping Andrle under control,” Clement said. “He's as good a player as there is in this section.

“They have three guys 6-3 or bigger along the frontcourt and we battled them well on the boards (19-18 Butler advantage). David Tompkins was the best big man on the floor in this game.”

Pusateri gave quality minutes off the bench for Butler and continues to add depth to the guard position.

“He can set a tone out there, just like David did with his early rebounds,” Clement said.

Butler sank 19 of 34 shots from the floor.

“We've run our sets well before. We were more patient with everything tonight and found the open man going to the basket,” Tompkins said.

Clement agreed.

“We shot fewer 3s than we have all year. We were making good decisions with the ball, not gunning up shots,” he said.

“Now we go to North Allegheny Friday and no one gives us a chance to win that game. That's good. That's the way we like it.”

PINE-RICHLAND 39Andrew Nussbaum 0-1 0-0 0, Andy Andrle 6-9 4-6 17, Addison Dishart 0-1 0-0 0, Sam Dunsmore 0-0 1-2 1, Dean Stelliotes 2-2 0-0 4, Tim Williams 1-2 5-6 7, Pat Sullivan 0-4 3-4 3, Shea Sullivan 0-2 1-2 1, Tyler Tenaglia 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Roberts 0-1 0-0 0, Collin Jackson 2-5 2-2 6.

Totals: 11-27 16-22 39.

BUTLER 66Nate Snodgrass 6-12 10-10 24, Keenan Krause 1-1 0-0 2, Cody West 1-2 4-7 7, Trevor Wideman 2-2 2-2 6, Jake Hilliard 1-4 2-2 4, Dom Pusateri 1-1 3-4 5, Luke Hartung 0-3 0-0 0, Matt Baranchak 0-0 0-0 0, David Tompkins 6-8 3-3 15, Tanner Wahler 0-0 0-2 0, Zach Pilarcik 0-0 0-0 0, Arum Krause 0-0 0-0, Jordan Cratty 1-1 1-1 3.

Totals: 19-34 25-31 66.

Pine-Richland 10 7 13 9—39Butler 22 9 16 19—663-point goals: Pine-Richland 1 (Andrle); Butler 3 (Snodgrass 2, West).

Junior varsity: Butler, 51-45 (P-R: Nate Roberts 18, B: Zach Neudorfer 10, Arum Krause 10)

Friday: Butler at North Allegheny