Pine-Richland Beats Butler for 3rd Time, Repeats as WPIAL Champs

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, March 4, 2017 | 11:06 PM

For the second time in as many years, the Pine Richland Rams boys took gold in the WPIAL’s highest classification.  The Rams used a late 11-2 run in the 4th quarter to pull away from the Butler Golden Tornado and win the 6-A Championship, 72-61.  It was the third time in as many tries that Pine Richland defeated their Section 1 foe.  The Rams had to defeat North Hills a third time in the 6-A semifinals to even make it to the championship game.

Butler started strong by outscoring the Rams, 15-11 in the first quarter.  The Golden Tornado went on an 8-0 run to take an early 8-2 lead, getting a pair of field goals by Connor Ollio and Tyler Frederick.  But, Pine Richland would respond in the 2nd quarter by outscoring Butler 18-14, thus tying the game 29-29 at the half.  The Rams got clutch 3-pointers from Greg Shulkosky and Sean Colosimo in an 8-0 run which gave Pine Richland a 24-21 lead with 3:00 left in the first half.  Butler was hurt by Tyler Frederick picking up his 3rd fould in the middle of the 2nd quarter.

The 3rd quarter was a back-and-forth eight minutes, with the Rams capturing a 3-point lead.  Pine Richland withstood torrid shooting by the Golden Tornado who made five 3-pointers in the 3rd quarter.  Butler’s Joel Stutz had three treys while brother Jace and Jefferson Ford each hit one a piece.  But, Andrew Petcash scored six of his 18 points in the quarter to lead the Rams to a 50-47 lead after the quarter.

The 4th quarter was tightly contested early on as the Golden Tornado scored five straight points to cut the lead to 61-59.  But, that’s when the Rams went on their late tear to salt away the victory.  Evan Luellen had a big put-back on a Phil Jurkovec miss to give the Rams the lead 65-59 with 1:30 to go.  Luellen would score again the next time down the court, giving the Rams an 8-point cushion.

The Rams ended up with four players in double-digits.  Rams junior Phil Jurkovec  led Rams in scoring with 21 points and also hauled down a team-high 11 rebounds.  Andrew Kristofic had 14 points and 8 boards.  Andrew Petcash scored 18 points, 14 coming after the half.  Sophomore Greg Shulkosky poured in 11 points off the bench for the Rams.  Butler was led by freshman Ethan Morton who had 17 points.  Senior Tyler Frederick scored 14 points and had 8 rebounds and Connor Ollio added 12 points.

With the win, the Pine Richland Rams (24-1) will head to the PIAA Boys Basketball Championships on a high note and will take on the Latrobe Wildcats on Saturday, March 11th.  The Butler Golden Tornado (17-9) will face the Canon McMillan Big Macs in the first round of the tournament on Saturday as well.

Score by Quarter:
Butler Golden Tornado : 15 – 14 – 18 – 14 = 61
Pine-Richland Rams : 11 – 18 – 21 – 22 = 72

Tags: Butler