CHICAGO -- As far as Loyola basketball coach Porter Moser is concerned, Butler's Ronald Nored is a living, breathing instructional video.
Nored, the Bulldogs' four-year point guard, made several key plays down the stretch Saturday in a 63-57 victory that further tightened the Horizon League race.
Of Butler's 12 points over the closing three minutes, Nored scored or assisted on 10. His stat line: 16 points, six rebounds, a career-high nine assists, zero turnovers and three steals in 39 minutes.
Moreover, Moser identified an important moment in which Nored knocked the ball off a Loyola player out of bounds. Moser pleaded to the official that it should be Loyola's ball, but he knew it wasn't.
"That will never be in the box score. But I saw it," Moser said.
The Bulldogs (12-9) won their third in a row and saw their league record improve to 6-3, one game behind first-place Valparaiso (7-2).
That sets up Butler's Thursday showdown at Milwaukee. Cleveland State and Milwaukee, both 6-2, meet today.
Butler never trailed over the last 31 minutes but rarely led by more than five points. Loyola's Walt Gibler converted a three-point play to trim the margin to 48-45 with 3:39 left.
Soon afterward, Nored passed twice to Khyle Marshall for baskets, including a dunk, and made four successive free throws. That sequence put Butler ahead 59-52 with less than a half-minute left.
"If you want to be a player, get pen and notebook and sit down and watch Ronald Nored, every single game," Moser said. "The kid's a winner. I mean, he is totally in tune with every single play. He's over looking at our coaches, what we're calling. He knows every play. If one kid scores, you can see him switch over and guard that kid so he doesn't score again.
"He epitomizes a winning mentality."
Nored steadied the Bulldogs after a stretch in which they shot 2-of-19 and allowed Loyola to keep close. Butler was scoreless on seven consecutive possessions to end the first half and had its lead trimmed to 25-23.
The Bulldogs repeatedly missed from the 3-point line after Loyola changed to a 1-3-1 zone. It wasn't that they weren't supposed to shoot them, coach Brad Stevens said, but that they hesitated too much.
Chase Stigall, however, didn't hesitate when he sank a 3 in transition on a pass from Nored, extending Butler's lead to 42-34 with less than eight minutes to play. When the Ramblers extended their defense, Nored and Roosevelt Jones located Marshall at the back of the zone -- and Butler made eight of its last nine shots.
Nored said the young Bulldogs remind him of the "goofy, immature" team that Butler featured when he was a freshman.
"In the hotel room, it's fun," he said. "It's starting to carry over on the court more, that chemistry, that togetherness that we have off the court."
Marshall scored all of his 14 points in a 6-of-7 second half. Andrew Smith had 12 points, all in the first half, and a career-high 13 rebounds for Butler. Gibler and Joe Crisman scored 14 each for the Ramblers (5-14, 0-9).
That Butler struggled against a team that has now lost seven in a row was of no consequence to Stevens. He noted the Bulldogs won at Loyola 48-47 and 65-63 in the past two trips, and in each season they reached the NCAA championship game.
"I like the poise we showed," Stevens said.
Call Star reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195.
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