Tornado girls drop Foxes in possible playoff preview
BUTLER TWP — If the Butler girls basketball team's home game against Fox Chapel Monday is a WPIAL playoff preview, Golden Tornado coach Dorothea Epps would love a similar performance come February.
In a battle of section frontrunners, Butler received balanced scoring and a solid defensive effort in a 63-47 victory.
The Foxes are leading Section 2-AAAA, while the Tornado are atop Section 3.
Olivia Bresnahan led all scorers with 20 points, Jenna Manuel added 16 and Amanda Dymun managed 13 for the Tornado.
"We've preached to the girls from early on about Olivia not being our sole scorer," said Epps. "Others have stepped up and it makes teams defend everybody."
As important to the win as the balanced scoring was, Butler's defense played just as big a role.
The Tornado (10-1) led 23-21 at halftime before outscoring the Foxes 14-5 in the third period.
Dymun's 3-pointer with 2:21 remaining in the period gave Butler a 32-22 edge.
Fox Chapel (7-2) had tallied just three free throws in the quarter when Sara Damico hit a basket with 58 seconds remaining to cut her team's deficit to 37-26.
Over the last two quarters, Butler shot 11-of-16 from the field for 69 percent.
"Butler is a good team," said Foxes coach Rich Mull. "They were consistent down the stretch and we weren't.
"We had possessions where we looked good, but we missed a lot of layups," he added. "You can't do that and beat a good team like Butler."
The first half was low-scoring, with both teams experiencing turnover problems.
Butler had 16 miscues by halftime.
"I don't want to take anything away from (Fox Chapel's) defense, but a lot of our turnovers were unforced, just silly mistakes," said Epps.
The game was tied at 10 after one quarter, but Butler turned three consecutive Fox Chapel turnovers into three layups from Bresnahan for a 16-10 lead less than a minute into the second period.
<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE6259716.MOV " width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>Heidi Goeller led Fox Chapel with 14 points while Jenny Papich chipped in with 10.The Tornado were 18-of-26 from the free throw line, including 13-of-17 in the fourth quarter. Butler held a 29-26 edge in rebounds<B>FOX CHAPEL 47Lauren Kolod 2 1-2 5, Lindsey McKamish 1 0-0 2, Maria Ricci 0 1-2 1, Heidi Goeller 6 2-4 14, Sara Damico 3 3-4 9, Jenny Papich 3 4-5 10, Holly Borquin 1 4-6 6, Kate Petraglia 0 0-0 0, Taylor Drawbaugh 0 0-0 0. </B>Totals: 16 15-23 47.<B>BUTLER 63Casey Fleeger 3 0-0 8, Katresa Savisky 2 0-0 4, Olivia Bresnahan 5 10-15 20, Amanda Dymun 3 6-7 13, Casie Cygan 1 0-0 2, Jenna Manuel 7 2-4 16, Rachel Doutt 0 0-0 0, Emily Wise 0 0-0 0.</B> Totals: 21 18-26 63.<B>Fox Chapel 10 11 5 21—47Butler 10 13 14 26—633-point goals:</B> Butler 3 (Fleeger 2, Dymun).<B>JV:</B> Butler 40-37 (B-Wise and Johnson, 11 points)<B>Thursday:</B> Butler at Moon
