WEXFORD — Tick. Tick. Tick.

Like a time bomb, the Upper St. Clair girls basketball team ticked away for more than three quarters.

Then, boom.

In a two-minute stretch, the Panthers scored nine consecutive points, turning a four-point, white-knuckle game into a cruise to the final buzzer.

Butler simply could not defuse Upper St. Clair in a 59-45 loss at NorthAllegheny High in the first round of the PIAA Quad-A playoffs Friday night.

"The thing that we knew we couldn't do is run up and down the floor with them," said Butler coach Dorothea Epps. "They are a scoring machine."

For the better part of the game, the Golden Tornado kept Upper St. Clair from getting points in prodigious bunches. Sure, the Panthers got their leads — six, seven, sometimes even nine points — but Butler had a knack of knocking those advantages down to size.

The Golden Tornado trailed by four late in the third quarter and by four again on two other occasions in the fourth quarter.

Then: tick, tick, boom.

"It's the defense," said Upper St. Clair coach Ernie Koontz. "When we get up in people's face and play pretty well, it causes us to get transition points."

That was no more evident than during the decisive stretch of the fourth period.

Lyndsy Day's high-arching 3-pointer cut through the net to put Butler behind 45-41. After a turnover by Upper St. Clair, the Golden Tornado had the basketball and the momentum.

Then: tick, tick, boom.

Upper St. Clair scored 14 of the next 18 points and the Panthers jumped into the next round of the state playoffs.

"You can slow them down," Epps said, "but you can't do that for four quarters."

Butler certainly gave it a good try.

The Golden Tornado never let Upper St. Clair go nuclear and blow them out of the gym.

Day was one of the reasons why.

Playing on a shredded left knee, Day hit three big 3-pointers in the second half.

She was wide open because of the darting penetration of Olivia Bresnahan, who drew double and sometimes triple teams from the Panthers but still finished with a team-leading 11 points.

"They weren't 24-3 for nothing," Koontz said. "They are a great team and they came out here and showed it."

Upper St. Clair was as cold as the weather for three quarters, shooting a mere 30 percent from the floor in the first 24 minutes.

But then Andrea Pion lit the fuse in the fourth quarter with 12 of her 14 points as the Panthers were 8-of-9 from the floor in the final period.

Meghan McLean scored 17 points to lead USC.

"You never know who is going to step up," Koontz said. "That's a nice luxury to have."

One of the most successful seasons in Butler's history came to an end in the fallout.

"We kept fighting," Epps said. "Pound for pound, we weren't as talented as that team. We knew that. We just wanted to keep it close enough to maybe win it at the end."

In her postgame speech, Epps threw down the gauntlet to her returning players.

"I hate to see these seniors go, more than just because of basketball. They are really great young ladies," Epps said. "I told the girls coming back that they have some pretty big shoes to fill."

BUTLER 45Lyndsy Day 3-8 0-0 9, Olivia Bresnahan 5-15 1-3 11, Erica Miller 0-5 0-3 0, Casie Cygan 0-3 3-4 3, Karissa King 3-7 0-0 8, Kayla Gilliland 2-3 0-0 4, Katherine Sylvia 0-1 0-0 0, Jenna Manuel 5-9 0-0 10,Rachel Doutt 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-51 4-10 45

UPPERST.CLAIR 59Alex Gensler 6-18 0-1 14, Andrea Pion 5-11 4-4 14, Emily Mueller 4-6 0-2 8, Grace Hyland 2-6 0-0 4, Megan McLean 7-17 1-3 17, Leslie DeLany 1-2 0-1 2, Haley Lohman 0-0 0-0 0, Lauren Reda 0-0 0-0 0, Morgan Mlinak 0-0 0-0 0, Rachel Starr 0-0 0-1 0, Maggie Scherer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-60 5-12 59

Butler 9 10 14 12—45Upper St. Clair 12 16 10 21—593-point goals: Day 3. King 2; Gensler 2, McLean 2