Tornado girls weather storm
Butler starts with rare deficit, but still tops NH

By Sam Tallarico
Eagle Staff Writer

BUTLER TWP — Butler found itself in an unusual position Thursday night.
Against visiting North Hills, the Golden Tornado girls basketball team trailed by nine points to open the game.
However, Butler answered with the next nine points and eventually built a 17-point lead before coming away with a 53-41 Section 3-AAAA victory over the Indians.
"That's about the first time all year we've been behind and had to fight back," said Butler coach Dorothea Epps. "Usually, we've jumped out to a lead early, but we showed a lot of character."
In the team's first meeting in December, Butler (13-1, 7-0) routed the Indians 59-20.
"Ithink some of the things we did tonight are things we've done all season," said Indians coach Tom Sandherr.
"The one thing about our kids here is they'll never give up. Some may lack a little skill of basketball, but they never look at the scoreboard," he added.
Butler erased that early deficit by going on a 15-2 run to take a 15-11 lead with 6:19 left before halftime. Butler sank only one of its first six free-throw attempts, but nailed its next six, including two apiece by Katresa Savisky and Jenna Manuel to close out the run.
"I told the girls North Hills would come out to battle in the pregame because they don't have anything to lose and we have everything to lose," said Epps. "I didn't feel our offense was flowing. We were doing well with four shooters on the floor, but we didn't seem to rotate the ball well. It was just one of those games."
The Indians (5-9, 2-5) did receive a free throw from Katy Turzak, then a basket and two free throws from Jess Rectenwald to take a 16-15 lead with 4:30 left before the break.
That would prove to be the Indians' last lead as Butler reeled off the next 10 points, including a basket plus a 3-pointer by Manuel to highlight the run.
"I thought we were getting beat on the boards early on," said Epps. "That's something we can't do when rebounding is a key component to our game."
North Hills made one final push, closing out the first half with a basket, then opening the second half with two more to make it a 25-22 contest.
Butler got two free throws from Manuel, one from Casie Cygan and baskets from Olivia Bresnahan and Manuel to take a 32-22 lead with 4:33 left in the third quarter.
North Hills trimmed the deficit to eight points three times, but Butler eventually surged to a 53-36 lead with 2:01 remaining. North Hills closed out the game with five points over the final minute of play.
Manuel led Butler with 17 points and Bresnahan added 16. The Indians were paced by Ali Patton's 12 points.

NORTH HILLS 41
Ali Patton 4 3-4 12, Gabby Marshall 4 0-0 8, Julie Havrilla 2 2-3 6, Emma Wingerd 2 0-2 4, Katy Turzak 2 1-2 5, Julia Klein 0 0-0 0, Jess Rectenwald 2 2-2 6, Megan Hans 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 8-13 41.
BUTLER 53
Casey Fleeger 0 0-1 0, Olivia Bresnahan 6 4-8 16, Amanda Dymun 1 0-2 2, Casie Cygan 3 1-2 7, Jenna Manuel 6 4-6 17, Katresa Savisky 0 4-5 4, Ali Sedwick 2 0-0 5, Rachel Doutt 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 13-24 53.

North Hills 11 7 12 11—41
Butler 11 14 20 8—53
3-point goals: Patton; Sedwick, Manuel
JV: Butler, 49-33 (B:Katresa Savisky 24, Ali Sedwick