(Butler, PA) The Butler County Community College men’s basketball program seeks a second appearance in the national tournament in two seasons behind recruits who played for a two-time high school state champion, a most valuable player in a postseason all-star game and a point guard who scored 70 3-pointers in his senior year.
The Pioneers under first-year coach Joe Lewandowski in March earned a berth in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national tournament for the first time in the program’s 55-year history.
BC3 in 2022-2023 was also ranked nationally for the first time in at least 10 years and at 21-5 finished with its first winning record in at least 13 seasons.
“BC3’s men’s basketball team is coming off a great season last year and got some attention. They were the underdogs in the NJCAA in the 22-23 season and made some noise.”
Nine of 11 players on its 2023-2024 roster are freshmen.
“I have high expectations of getting to the national championship,” said Bryson Kirschner, a member of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School teams that won a state-record 74 consecutive games and state Class AA titles in 2021 and in 2022. “I think we have a great group of guys and I would be selling us short if that wasn’t my expectation.”
“Get to the national tournament,” said Ashton Neely, an Altoona High graduate and the most valuable player of a Blair County team that won the Altoona Mirror Basketball Classic in March.
“BC3’s men’s basketball team is coming off a great season last year and got some attention,” said Demitri Fritch, who scored 70 3-pointers for Springdale in 2020-2021. “They were the underdogs in the NJCAA in the 22-23 season and made some noise. … I expect a winning season and for us to go far again this year.”
BC3 in 2022-2023 was ranked for six weeks and as high as No. 7 among 97 Division III programs. BC3 won its seventh Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship since 1980 and its first NJCAA Division III Region 20 title since 2002.
“The success you have always matters. I think people want to be a part of successful programs. But I hope that the reason they are coming here is because they want to get a great education, which we know we have here at BC3.”
The seventh-ranked Pioneers received a berth to the national tournament in Herkimer, N.Y., where they dropped an 84-81 decision to No. 13 Rochester (Minn.) Community and Technical College in the first round and defeated sixth-ranked Fulton-Montgomery Community College (Johnstown, N.Y.) 83-76 in the consolation round.
“The success you have always matters,” Lewandowski said. “I think people want to be a part of successful programs. But I hope that the reason they are coming here is because they want to get a great education, which we know we have here at BC3.
“They want to be part of a program that cares about them, not just as basketball players, but as people. And finally, they want to be part of a program that is going to compete for a national championship.”
Rocco Spadafora averaged 16 points in his senior season at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and Kirschner, 14.
Neely averaged 18 points in his senior season and scored approximately 45 3-pointers.
Fritch averaged 28 points and 11 rebounds in his senior season at Springdale.
Kirschner, Fritch, Neely and Spadafora join as new BC3 players freshmen Cris De La Rosa, Butler; Elam Pyle, Slippery Rock; Isaiah Sharp, Beaver Falls; Max Southworth, Kennedy Catholic; D’Andre Whitman, Rocky Grove; and sophomore Trey Metzka, Struthers, Ohio.
Cole Rodgers, Knoch, returns from BC3’s 2022-2023 squad.
5 from 2022-2023 continue careers
“They are younger guys, and they are excited to be a part of the program,” Lewandowski said. “They want to be a part of that success. They want to carry it on, which makes us really excited about them.”
Kevaughn Price, Jason Baker, Derrick Anderson, Todd Simons and Anthony Watson were among players who led BC3 in 2022-2023.
Price ranked eighth in Division III with 226 successful field goals and was named the program’s first All-American since 2015. Baker ranked first with 130 blocks; and Anderson ranked third with a 22.4 scoring average.
Price accepted an athletics scholarship at the University of South Carolina Beaufort; Baker, at Fairmount State University, W.Va.; Anderson, at Gannon University, Erie; Simons, at Lake Erie College, Painesville, Ohio; and Watson, to Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
De La Rosa is a 5-foot-10 guard and business administration student; Fritch, 6-5, guard-forward, business management; Kirschner, 6-3, guard-forward, early childhood education (Pre K-4); Neely, 5-10, guard, business management; Metzka, 6-4, guard-forward, general studies; Pyle, 6-0, guard, business administration; Rodgers, 6-2, forward, general studies; Sharp, 5-11, guard, business administration; Southworth, 6-3, guard-forward, business administration; Spadafora, 6-0, guard, biological science; and Whitman, 6-1, guard-forward, business administration.
