MANOR TWP, Armstrong County — The scoreboard said one thing. The eye test Butler girls basketball coach Joe Lewandowski applied to his team's season opener said another.

He is much more focused on the latter.

The Golden Tornado dropped a 39-31 decision to West Shamokin in the opening round of the Armstrong Tip-Off Tournament Friday afternoon.

Butler faced a double-digit deficit for much of the second half, but cut the Wolves' edge to as little as four points in the fourth quarter, which saw the Tornado score more than half (16) of their points.

The Tornado are working to improve on last year's 3-19 record.

“West Shamokin is a talented team, but our girls battled,” said Lewandowski. “We just need to put more quarters like the fourth together.”

Butler was just 1-of-14 from beyond the arc in the first three periods, but heated up in the final eight minutes.

Mia Rader drained a pair of 3-pointers and Jenna Kunst another. Rader's second basket pulled Butler to within 34-30 with 40 seconds remaining.

With 32 seconds left and West Shamokin holding a 36-31 lead, the Wolves' Olivia Fusaro hit the front end of a pair of free throws. Her miss on the second attempt was rebounded by West Shamokin and teammate Katie Glover dropped in a 2-pointer and that was followed by a Butler turnover, effectively ending the game.

“We missed some easy layups earlier in the fourth,” said Lewandowski. “Not making them caused us to have to foul at the end and it allowed them to get some big points at the line.”

Butler's offense struggled from the floor for much of the game. It tallied just four points in the first quarter and three in the third, allowing the Wolves to open up a 27-15 lead with eight minutes to play.

Butler junior forward Alyssa Eyth scored six points on three field goals in the second period, but the rest of the team tallied just two points.

“One thing that hurt us was Jenna (Kunst, junior forward) picked up her third foul in the second quarter and her fourth early in the third,” said Lewandowski. “She had to come out for a while and we took a lot of 3s because that is what they were giving us.

“I think we played with some opening-game jitters. But we didn't turn the ball over (just 13 turnovers, less than half of the team's average from last year). Defensively, I think we played a solid game. We allowed just one double-digit quarter. You usually win if you do that.”

“We knew about those two (Kunst and Eyth) and wanted to limit their opportunities,” said West Shamokin coach Frank Nagy. “We lost some of those battles and our rebounding in the first half left a lot of room for improvement.”

The Wolves corrected that problem, out-rebounding Butler 23-16 in the second half.

Fusaro, a junior guard, is in her third season as a starter. She was a thorn in Butler's side the entire game, scoring a game-high 22 points.

“She scored over half of their points,” added Lewandowski. “We tried doing different things against her, but she's a fabulous player.”

Eyth led Butler with 10 points, followed by Kunst (9) and Rader (7).

“We will shoot better,” said Lewandowski. “The positives from this game definitely out-weigh the negatives.”

WEST SHAMOKIN 39

Katie Glover 2 1-2 5, Jasah Huth 1 0-0 2, Andrea Orlosky 3 1-2 9, Olivia Fusaro 6 9-13 22, Gabby Olinger 0 1-2 1, Shelby Clowser 0 0-0 0, Jaden DiFilippo 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 12-19 39.

BUTLER 31

Mia Rader 2 1-2 7, Alyssa Eyth 4 2-4 10, Kylee Lewandowski 1 0-0 3, Jenna Kunst 4 0-0 9, Julia Gibson 1 0-0 2, Nicole Pepmeyer 0 0-0 0, Audrey Hilliard 0 0-0 0, Morgan Gage 0 0-0 0, Heidi Gross 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 3-6 31.

West Shamokin 9 9 9 12 — 39

Butler4 8 3 16 — 31

3-point goals: West Shamokin 3 (Orlosky 2, Fusaro); Butler 4 (Rader 2, Lewandowski, Kunst).

Saturday: Butler vs. Deer Lakes, 2 p.m.