Butler vs. Pine-Richland 2-27-19 Preview

Pine-Richland basketball player, Dan Petcash, jumps up in the air to the rim to dunk a basketball in a game against Butler on January 8th 2019.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On Wednesday February 27th 2019, the Pine-Richland Rams will play the Butler Golden Tornadoes for the third time, this season, in the WPIAL 6A Boys Basketball Semifinals at Fox Chapel High School at 8 PM ET.

Involving WPIAL Boys Basketball, Pine-Richland and Butler has to be considered as one of the best rivalries. These schools are separated by only 30 minutes apart and the two times that these two teams faced each other in the regular season, both games were sellouts.

This season, the first time these two teams played each other was on January 8th 2019 at Pine-Richland High School. The Rams were able to beat the Golden Tornadoes by a score of 79-74. Butler guard, Ethan Morton, scored 51 points in that game; but, Butler still lost. That performance by Morton was considered one of the best games he had in the whole season and he still lost.

These two teams played each other for the second time, this season, at Butler Senior High School on January 29th 2019. Pine-Richland once again won by a score of 95-76. This was a game that Pine-Richland just dominated; it was not that Butler played terrible. It was just that Pine-Richland made almost every shot they attempted. They converted 16 3-pointers on 26 attempts and shot 58 percent overall in that game. Pine-Richland basketball player, Dan Petcash, scored 29 points in the game as he made 5 3-pointers out 8 attempts and finished 11 for 18 in all of his shots. For Butler, Morton only scored 20 points in that game.

The playoff game on Wednesday between these two teams is going to be electric. Both of these school's student sections are loud and when they are both in the same gymnasium, they both even get louder. What is funny to see is when both Pine-Richland's and Butler's student sections exchange words on Twitter. That can be funny at times.

Basically every gym that Ethan Morton plays in, he gets the gym to be packed. Morton has many Division 1 offers. Some of the schools that have given him offers are West Virginia, Virginia, Pitt, Oregon, Iowa, Butler, Ohio State, Michigan, and Stanford. There are many other colleges as well that have given him offers. Imagine, how funny it would be of Morton played his college basketball at Butler University. That would be pretty ironic.

Petcash and Morton are arguably the best players on their respected teams; but, you all have to remember that there are other players on both teams that can step up. Pine-Richland basketball player, Colin Luellen, scored the game winning basket in their quarterfinal playoff game against Peters Township on Saturday (66-64). Luellen's game winning layup helped the Rams win the game after trailing by 17 points in the middle of the fourth quarter. It was a big loss for Peters Township. Greg Shulkosky is also a veteran basketball for Pine-Richland who has the capability of scoring 20 points per game.

Butler basketball players, Devin Carney and Mattix Clement also make contributions to the team. In their quarterfinal playoff game against Upper St. Clair, Carney scored 12 points and Clement scored 11 points.

On Wednesday, we're going to figure out which team wants to win more. Will it be Pine-Richland or Butler? Whichever team wins this game will be heading to the Petersen Events Center in the WPIAL 6A Boys Basketball Championship game on March 2nd 2019.