As the Butler boys basketball team prepared to play Boonton on Wednesday evening the Bulldogs looked up at the gymnasium walls and saw the Bombers 2004-05 sectional championship banner.
For Butler head coach Jon Simoneau the banner had a special meaning that he passed down to his players.
"I told the guys about the Boonton 04-05 team went through a similar situation that we are in now and they won a sectional title. I coached against them and they were a gritty hard working group of kids that got hot at the right time and they won a sectional title," recalled Simoneau. "It is something that I really feel that these guys can do."
The situation that Simoneau was referring to was the loss of the teams leading scorer early in the season due to injury.
When James Spadaccini and his 25 points per game were lost in the Bulldogs December 29th loss to Montville the Butler players knew that they would all have to step up their games.
Since losing their first two games without Spadaccini the Bulldogs have responded with consecutive wins, including Wednesday's impressive wire to wire 48-38 win over the Bombers.
"Since James has left we have had a different high scorer in every game," said Simoneau. "We will rely on a different guy every day and we can do that because we have great senior leadership. Everyone has to suck it up and play basketball and that is what we have done for the last two weeks."
The thing about the 2011-12 Bulldogs is that no one on the team really seems to care who has the most points in any individual game. The only stat that the Bulldog players are interested in is the amount of wins that the team compiles.
"None of us are selfish," said senior Nick DalPan after the win. "We are all together for a win, none of us our trying to get our own stats we are looking to help each other. We just want to win."
For Simoneau a perfect example of the group of players that he has on his team is senior Mike McConville.
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