Butler Boys Basketball Team Falls Short of Revenge

Trying to avenge a 51 point loss at Whippany Park in January, the Bulldogs gave a valiant effort Thursday, but couldn't close the game out, losing 49-43 in Junior Guard and Butler Leading Scorer led the Bulldogs with 26 points and added 5 steals. Junior forward Michael McConville filled the stat sheet with 7 rebounds, 4 points, 4 steals and 2 blocks in the loss.

After trailing 16-11 at the end of  the first quarter, the Bulldogs increased their defensive intensity with some impressive man-to-man defense. Led by Nick Costa, Spadaccini and McConville, Butler cut the deficit to 21-19 at halftime and held Whippany Park to just 5 points in the second quarter.

"Man defense is something we wanted to succeed with all year, and now we're getting at it, these players are putting their stamp on it now," Butler Head Coach Jon Simoneau said.

"It's way past the coaching at this point. The players are getting passionate about playing defense and about basketball," he said. "We're improving and getting better."

Butler was fighting to take their first lead all game and they finally did after Senior Captain Brian Hallock hit a 3-pointer from the corner to give Butler a 27-25 advantage with 3:15 left in the third quarter. After a timeout, the Whippany Park Cardinals would take the lead back and maintain that lead for the remainder of the game to preserve the win.

"Obviously, to lose is disappointing, but I feel good about our performance tonight," Junior Forward Michael McConville said. "I think if we keep working hard in practice and keep getting at the defensive side of the ball like this, we'll have a shot to turn things around."

"We got beat up in the county tournament game on Saturday, so we wanted to come out with a good intensity this week. It's unfortunate we didn't come out with a win, but we're getting better and we gotta keep working to get ready for the state tournament," Spadaccini said."We got four games coming up next week and I feel confident we will do well and create a winning streak going into the state's, where we can make things happen."

Butler is indeed improving, and they have corrected many of their mistakes that they struggled with early this season. However, Coach Simoneau said he knows there is one area that they specifically need to fix.

"We gotta fix the turnovers. The defense is there, the intensity and passion the physicality is all there, I think we just gotta fix this one last part and if we can do that we can make a run in the state tournament," he said.

Butler plays four games next week in preparation for the state tournament. Their first game is Monday night in Dover at 7.