PLUMBORO— The recipe spelled disaster for the Butler girls basketball team Saturday afternoon.

• Senior point guard Lyndsy Day was lost to a knee injury less than two minutes into the game.

• The Golden Tornado turned the ball over 25 times.

• Butler sank only five of 16 free throws and scored a season-low 36 points.

But a pair of Katherine Sylvia free throws with 1.9 seconds left cemented a harrowing 36-32 WPIALClass AAAA first-round victory over Hempfield at Plum High School.

"Itold the girls at halftime that defense was going to have to win this game for us,"Butler coach Dorothea Epps said. "And I told Olivia (Bresnahan) she was going to have to step up her play and take over this game."

Both things happened.

Butler (23-2) trailed 24-19 at the intermission, reeling from the loss of Day. Her right knee gave out on her as she tried cutting into the lane during a two-on-one break with her team holding a 2-0 lead.

Day was carried off the court, had an ice pack on her knee the remainder of the first half and was on crutches as her team emerged from the locker room for the second half.

"That was terrible,"Bresnahan said of Day's injury. "She's our leader on the court and one of the most popular girls on the team. Now she's hurt. We all felt like crying.

"Losing Lyndsy, all of the assists and good plays she gives us, dropped our level of play for the rest of the half."

Epps agreed.

"I looked down our bench and saw some tears,"the coach said. "This is a close-knit team. These girls care about each other. I couldn't get mad about that. But we had to regroup.

"We didn't get this far because of one player and losing one player won't destroy us."

Bresnahan scored only two points and had two rebounds in the first half. She finished the game with 12 points and 10 boards.

Bresnahan brought her team back into the game by sticking back an offensive rebound and sinking another lay-up for the first four points of the third quarter. A third Bresnahan lay-up tied the game at 25 with 4:13 left in the period.

In the meantime, Hempfield's offense disappeared. The Spartans sank only two of 20 shots from the floor in the second half and scored just eight points.

"Coach wanted us to be more aggressive defensively and we pressed more,"Bresnahan said. "That seemed to bother them."

Junior guard Maria Montini — Hempfield's top scorer with 15 points per game — scored eight points in the second quarter, but none the rest of the day.

Junior point guard Melissa Lupinacci fouled out with 2:41 left in the game and 6-foot-1 senior forward Jenn West followed suit with 1:14 to play.

"Our offense wasn't in a funk. Butler plays great defense and they were challenging shots," Hempfield coach Gene Brisbane said. "We penetrated that zone for a number of lay-ups. We just missed them."

The Spartans missed a healthy Montini as well. Fighting the flu, she didn't practice all week and didn't start Saturday. Freshman Danielle Murphy started in her place.

"By the second half, Maria's legs were gone,"Brisbane said.

Butler never took control of the game, but scored just enough points to win. The Tornado trailed 27-26 entering the final quarter, but a pair of buckets by Jenna Manuel put Butler ahead 30-27 with 6:55 remaining.

That slim lead was never lost.

Two more Bresnahan field goals — an eight-footer and lay-up — gave the Tornado a 34-29 edge with four minutes left. A 3-pointer by Murphy cut the gap to 34-32 with 1:23 to go.

From there, Butler held on for dear life.

"Iknew we were gonna turn the ball over with Day out of there,"Epps said. "Some of our other girls aren't used to handling the ball that much."

The Tornado failed to increase the lead at the foul line — Bresnahan missing four free throws and Rachel Doutt a pair down the stretch — and turned the ball over 10 times in the fourth quarter.

Hempfield turned it over eight times in the final eight minutes, the final time with 8.3 seconds left, while trying to set up a game-tying shot.

Karissa King's inbounding pass was intercepted, however, and Murphy drove inside and attempted to lay a shot in. It defected off the rim short, Sylvia grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 1.9 seconds left.

The senior calmly sank both free throws to ice the game.

Cygan replaced the injured Day and scored all 10 of her points in the first half for Butler. Tara Carone paced Hempfield (18-7) with nine points.

The Spartans had 20 turnovers themselves and Butler had a 41-22 rebounding advantage. Erica Miller snared seven boards and King had six.

Hempfield was held to 40 or fewer points in six of its final 11 games.

"Our offense wasn't the same during the second half of the season,"Brisbane admitted.

Butler plays Peters Township (18-7) — a 38-35 winner over Fox Chapel — in the second round.

HEMPFIELD 32Maria Montini 3-9 0-0 8, Beth Conrad 0-1 0-0 0, Melissa Lupinacci 1-5 3-3 5, Tara Catone 4-10 1-2 9, Jenn West 0-3 2-3 2, Danielle Murphy 3-11 1-2 8, Courtney DiBridge 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 11-39 7-10 32

BUTLER 36Lyndsy Day 0-0 0-0 0, Olivia Bresnahan 6-11 0-6 12, Karissa King 0-5 0-2 0, Katherine Sylvia 0-0 2-2 2, Erica Miller 1-3 0-0 2, Casie Cygan 4-15 0-0 10, Rachel Doutt 0-3 1-4 1, Jenna Manuel 3-5 0-0 7, Kayla Gilliland 0-0 2-2 2. Totals: 14-42 5-16 36

Hempfield 14 10 3 5—32Butler 6 13 7 10—363-point goals: Montini 2, Murphy; Cygan 2, Manuel

Friday: Butler vs. Peters Township, site, and time TBA