It's All About The Ring

Butler basketball player, Ethan Morton, scored 51 points in a game against Pine-Richland on January 8th 2019.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ethan Morton and the rest of the Butler Golden Tornadoes Boys Basketball team are trying to get a WPIAL championship ring in basketball. Two years ago in 2017, when Morton was a freshman on the team, Butler competed in the WPIAL 6A Boys Championship game and lost to Pine-Richland by a score of 72-61. Last year in 2018, when Morton was a sophomore on the team, Butler lost in the first round of the WPIAL 6A Boys Basketball playoffs to Latrobe by a score of 73-66.

This season, Morton is a junior in high school and is considered as an upperclassmen. It's time for Morton and the rest of the Golden Tornadoes to get that ring. During the regular season, he scored a total of 576 points and averaged 27.4 PPG. Morton has other players around him that has helped score. Butler freshman, Devin Carney, transferred from North Allegheny to Butler, before the start of basketball season, and has been producing for the team.

Yesterday, Morton and the Golden Tornadoes played their first playoff game and they defeated Connellsville by a score of 57-48. Morton scored 18 points in the game and Butler sophomore, Mattix Clement, scored 15 points in the game. This was a nice for win for Butler as they will move on to the 2nd round of the WPIAL 6A Boys Basketball playoffs and will play Upper St. Clair in their next playoff game on Saturday February 23rd 2019 at 1:30 PM ET at Canon-McMillian High School.

There is a chance that if Butler is able to beat Upper St. Clair on Saturday and Pine-Richland is able to beat Peters Township in one of the other four WPIAL 6A Boys Basketball 2nd round games then Butler will play Pine-Richland in the Final Four of the WPIAL 6A bracket. Butler is good enough and has enough talent to get to the WPIAL 6A championship game; the only problem is that it looks like they will have to play Pine-Richland again. In Morton's high school basketball career, he is 1-7 against Pine-Richland.

I can compare Morton's problem with Pine-Richland to when Alexander Ovechkin had a problem beating the Pittsburgh Penguins. Before Alexander Ovechkin beat Sidney Crosby in the 2nd round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, last season, he had a tough time beating the Penguins in the postseason. Once, Ovechkin finally beat Sidney Crosby in a playoff series in last season then he was finally able to get his Stanley Cup ring. I bet if Ovechkin and the Capitals did not lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2nd round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2016 and 2017 that the Capitals would have won the Stanley Cup in both of those seasons. It was never that the Capitals had no talent, it was that they could not beat the Penguins. It's the same thing with Morton and Pine-Richland. It's not that Morton's teams have been untalented, it's just for some reason they cannot beat Pine-Richland. I think if Morton can find a way to beat Pine-Richland than he can get his ring like once Ovechkin was able to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins.

First things first for Butler is that they better make sure that they do not Upper St. Clair on Saturday. The team has enough talent to beat Upper St. Clair. Butler has a lot of tall players on their team to try and stop Upper St. Clair's star player in Tanner Gensler. They just need to make sure they can force pressure on him.

The game between Butler and Upper St. Clair should be a fun game to watch as we should expect Canon McMillian's gym to be packed on Saturday.