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Braylon Littlejohn leads Butler to road win at raucous Franklin Regional

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Friday, December 15, 2023 | 10:49 PM

These are the moments Braylon Littlejohn dreams of.

“Always put the blinders on and just walk in on the game,” said the senior star, who scored 24 points Friday night to lead visiting Butler past Franklin Regional, 63-60, in a WPIAL boys basketball game that lived up to its hype.

Butler, the top-ranked Class 6A team coming off a two-point loss at home to North Hills, rebounded against previously unbeaten Class 5A Franklin Regional in front of a noisy pro-Panthers crowd.

“The atmosphere was wild,” said Littlejohn, who is committed to Miami (Ohio). “That was a great game.”

Littlejohn and Butler (3-1) held off a furious fourth-quarter rally by Franklin Regional (5-1) to get back on a winning track after dropping a 75-73 decision three days earlier.

“It got a little tight there at the end,” Littlejohn said. “It was a big challenge coming in here, for sure. They have a nice (starting) five, and their defense was great.”

Franklin Regional held the Butler guard scoreless in the first quarter but still trailed the Golden Tornado by a point after jumping to an early lead.

Butler coach Matt Clement, the former All-Star pitcher while with the Boston Red Sox, said he didn’t worry, though. He’s gotten to know his team’s tendencies, particularly Littlejohn’s and his sidekick, Donovan Carney.

“They’re the leaders. They’re the guys,” Clement said. “But we’ve got other guys, and that game the other night got the nerves away for some of my sophomores that played in it. They experienced it already. Franklin Regional is a good unit, and to be able to beat them gives us confidence, especially with our younger dudes.

“And a lot of younger dudes contributed.”

Tayt Lucas added 11 points, and Carney chipped in 10 for Butler, which returns home to play District 9 Slippery Rock on Friday. Butler stretched its one-point lead to 26-19 in the second quarter on consecutive 3-point shots by Ayden Davis and Kyle Casteel and ended the first half with a 31-24 advantage.

The Golden Tornado withstood Franklin Regional’s fast start to the third quarter that saw the Panthers pull within 31-30 when Littlejohn scored nine consecutive points to give Butler a 40-32 lead.

Lucas’ 3-pointer early in the fourth gave Butler its largest lead, 50-40, after Franklin Regional’s Cam Rowell, who led the Panthers with 23 points, misfired on a layup at the other end.

“We didn’t make enough winning plays to put ourselves in a good position to win the game,” Franklin Regional coach Jesse Reed said. “In the second half, we gave up eight offensive rebounds alone. They had eight to 10 second-chance points on those, and we missed five or six layups at the rim. Fifty-fifty balls went their way. You need to be able to dig in and make that extra ounce of effort to try to make those plays and be there.”

Reed said the Panthers, who play at Woodland Hills on Tuesday, are a better team than they showed.

“If we could do some of those little things, we’re maybe looking at a different result,” he said.

Cooper Rankin added 15 points, and Fin Hutchison ended with 11 for Franklin Regional, which rallied down the stretch and closed within 58-55 on a 3-pointer by Hutchison with 1 minute, 8 seconds left. The Panthers missed a chance to cut it to one point when Colin Masten stole the ball but missed the layup attempt.

Butler then hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final minute to seal the outcome.

“The key came in the fourth quarter, when we didn’t just hold the ball,” Clement said. “We ran 20-30 seconds off on our possessions, running our offense. Everyone touched the ball, so everybody else didn’t stand there like statues. It shortened the game at the end, and we needed that.”

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