Arthur Caldwell scored 21 pts and Butte needed every one of them to hold off Contra Costa, 79-77, in a first-round game of the Tony Costello Memorial tournament Thursday afternoon at Las Positas College in Livermore.
Butte (1-0) held a seemingly-commanding 16-point lead early in the second half and led 66-53 with about 8 minutes to go. But Contra Costa (0-1) kept battling and got within three points with 1:13 left and within two with 0.8 seconds remaining before finally running out of time.
Contra Costa started out well, scoring the game's first 4 points and leading, 7-2, early on. But Butte took a 13-10 lead on a 3-pointer by Jud Salisbery and led, 20-12 after three straight basket by Caldwell.
Contra Costa tied the game at 22 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Byron Buckley, but then Butte started to pull away again. A 3-pointer by Matt McGregor pushed the Roadrunner lead to 34-26 late in the first half. Contra Costa got a running lay-up from Dawson Johnson as the halftime horn sounded to cut the deficit to 36-30 at the break.
McGregor hit another three early in the second half to push Butte's lead to a dozen at 47-35, and Connor Morningstar scored off a pass from Michael Shoemaker to make it 49-35. Shoemaker scored off a pass from Salisbery a few minutes later to push Butte's lead to 16 at 54-38.
Contra Costa briefly cut the margin to single digits at 62-53 on a 3-pointer by Johnson with 8:20 left, but Salisbery pushed Butte's lead back to double figures with a 3-pointer to make it 66-53. At that point it looked like Butte was on its way to a comfortable victory.
It turned out to be anything but comfortable for the Roadrunners, however, as coach Miguel Johnson's Comets just kept battling. Buckley scored on a driving lay-up to again cut the margin to single digits at 66-57, and converted a 3-point play to make it 68-60 with 5:05 left. A 3-point play by Dawson Johnson made it 70-63 with 4:39 remaining.
As time wound down, the Comets kept inching closer. Two free throws by Jabraile Newkirk made it 74-69 with 1:47 left. A driving lay-up by
But it wasn't quite over yet. Dawson Johnson made a hurry-up three for Contra Costa to make it 77-74. The Comets were forced to foul and sent Nikolas Petruk to the line with 6.3 seconds left and he made two free throws to extend Butte's lead back to 79-74. But Dawson Johnson made another hurry-up three for Contra Costa with 0.8 seconds left to make it 79-77.
The Comets contested the inbounds pass, but Butte got the ball in to Petruk in the corner. He appeared to step out of bounds when the Butte defenders arrived, but the game officials realized that the game clock had not started and that more than 0.8 seconds had elapsed before he went out of bounds, so they declared the game over.
Caldwell, the Golden Valley Conference Player of the Year in 2013-14, led the winners with 21 pts and 7 rebs. Petruk had 14 pts, 5 rebs and 3 asts, and Salisbery had 11 pts and a game-high 7 asts. McGregor came off the bench for 12 pts on 3-for-3 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the line.
For Contra Costa, Dawson Johnson scored a team-high 21 pts, including 3 threes, and added a team-high 6 asts and a game-high 4 steals. Tajai Johnson scored 13 pts and Buckley came off the bench for 13 pts on 5-for-7 from the floor.
box score
Tony Costello Memorial Tournament
Butte Roadrunners 79:
3-pt fg (4): Salisbery 2, McGregor 2
Contra Costa Comets 77:
3-pt fg (6): D.Johnson 3. Buckley 2, T.Johnson
Halftime Score: Butte 36, Contra Costa 30
Updated Records: Butte 1-0, Contra Costa 0-1
Butte led 54-38 midway through the 2nd half.
Thursday, November 6, 2014 @ Las Positas College, Livermore
Game 2 - 4 pm
14-Dominic Parisi, SG - 2/6 fg, 5/8 ft, 5 reb, 3 ast, 4 pf, 9 pts
22-Jud Salisbery, PG - 3/7 fg, 3/4 ft, 3 reb, 7 ast, 4 pf, 11 pts
32-Arthur Caldwell, PF - 6/9 fg, 9/10 ft, 7 reb, 1 stl, 4 pf, 21 pts
33-Michael Shoemaker, C - 3/3 fg, 0/1 ft, 3 reb, 5 ast, 2 blk, 1 stl, 4 pf, 6 pts
35-Nikolas Petruk, SF - 4/7 fg, 6/8 ft, 5 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl, 3 pf, 14 pts
11-Josh Martin, G - 0/1 fg, 1 ast, 0 pts
41-Connor Morningstar, C - 3/3 fg, 0/2 ft, 3 reb, 1 blk, 2 pf, 6 pts
15-Blake Bass, F - 0 pts
31-Cameron Moore, F - 2 reb, 1 stl, 0 pts
10-Matt McGregor, G - 3/3 fg, 4/4 ft, 1 reb, 1 stl, 4 pf, 12 pts
team rebounds: 3
Totals: 24/39 fg (.615), 27/37 ft (.730), 32 reb, 19 ast, 4 blk, 5 stl, 25 pf, 79 pts
Intentional Foul: Parisi
Turnovers (22): Salisbery 6, Caldwell 5, Petruk 4, Parisi 3, Morningstar 3, McGregor
1-Dawson Johnson, PG - 6/13 fg, 6/8 ft, 2 reb, 6 ast, 4 stl, 1 pf, 21 pts
3-Tajai Johnson, SG - 4/14 fg, 4/6 ft, 3 reb, 2 ast, 3 pf, 13 pts
5-Jabraile Newkirk, PF - 1/1 fg, 3/5 ft, 4 reb, 1 stl, 5 pf, 5 pts
11-Isaac Brown, C - 4/7 fg, 1/2ft, 4 reb, 3 pf, 9 pts
24-Justin Johnson, SF - 3/5 fg, 3/4 ft, 1 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 5 pf, 9 pts
15-Jordan Brown, G - 2/7 fg, 0/1 ft, 1 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 5 pf, 4 pts
22-Phillip Secrease, F - 1/4 fg, 1/2 ft, 3 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 5 pf, 3 pts
2-Byron Buckley, G - 5/7 fg, 1/1 ft, 2 reb, 2 ast, 3 pf, 13 pts
44-DeAndre Russell, C - 1 pf, 0 pts
team rebounds: 5
Totals: 26/58 fg (.448), 19/29 ft (.658), 25 reb, 17 ast, 0 blk, 8 stl, 31 pf, 77 pts
Fouled Out: J.Brown 9:15 left, J.Johnson 2:34 left, Newkirk 49.3 seconds left, Secrease 12.5 seconds left
Turnovers (14): D.Johnson 3, T.Johnson 3, Secrease 3, Newkirk 2, J.Johnson, J.Brown, Buckley
Contra Costa got within 2 with 0.8 seconds left but ran out of time.
