BUTTE — The Butte Central boys basketball team continues to lock down its opponents.
The Maroons held Dillon without a field goal for more than eight minutes spanning the third and fourth quarters to pull away for a 45-35 win in a Southwestern A showdown Friday night.
At the 4:15 mark of the third quarter, Dillon’s Bradley Rakich made what would the Beavers’ final field until Michael Haverfield hit a 3-pointer with 4:03 left in the fourth quarter — Dillon’s final made shot of the game. During that stretch, Butte Central saw its lead grow from one to as large as 15.
“They pressured the ball pretty good and they got in the passing lanes. As the game wore on, we didn’t do a good job of attacking that and staying fundamentally sound,” Dillon head coach Terry Thomas said. “Give them a lot of credit, they did good, hard work. They were playing fundamentally very good as a team.”
Dillon hung around for the first three quarters and trailed by just five entering the fourth quarter. But a string of steals by Butte Central’s Luke Heaphy led to transition run-outs for the Maroons, as the Beavers struggled to find any footing offensively down the stretch.
“We didn’t protect the ball well enough to get good, quality shots in that second half,” Thomas said. “In the second half, they got a few more stops than we did and pulled and got that lead and were able to maintain it. I thought defensively we played good enough to win, but offensively just a couple of miscues and a few too many turnovers and not as good as quality shots as we needed to beat them.”
Butte Central led nearly wire-to-wire, only allowing Dillon to grab the lead for 14 seconds.
Braden Harrington led the Marrons with 17 points. Haverfield had a game-high 20 for Dillon. With the victory, Butte Central remains unbeaten at 7-0, while Dillon falls to 5-2.
On the girls side, Butte Central’s Tricia Joyce and freshman Sophie Thatcher built a small lead heading into halftime for the Lady Maroons. Butte Central never lost the lead in this contest, but Tylia DeJohn and company for the Beavers did all they could to make it interesting in the final minutes. In the end, it was the Lady Maroons holding on for the 34-29 win.
