BUTLER TWP — North Hills has trouble handling the basketball. Butler loves taking it away.

The matchup proved ideal for the Golden Tornado in a 56-32 girls basketball win Saturday afternoon in their much-awaited section opener.

This game was to be played nearly three weeks ago, but Butler's participation in the KSA Disney Classic in Orlando, Fla., forced its postponement.

"We've faced a lot of good teams who are strong in different phases of the game," Butler coach Dorothea Epps said. "That's how you get ready."

The Tornado appeared less than ready against North Hills early, hitting just three of 16 shots in the first eight minutes and needing a 3-point field goal from Casie Cygan with 25 seconds left in the first quarter to grab a 9-7 lead.

Then Butler's defense was more than ready.

"We applied some pressure, got some turnovers and that's what turned the game in our favor," Epps said.

Butler scored eight points in the first two minutes of the second period to build a 17-7 lead. The Indians (3-5, 1-1) had 16 turnovers by that point of the contest.

North Hills suffered 20 turnovers in the first half, 32 in the game.

"That's been our bugaboo, handling the basketball," Indians coach Tom Sandherr said. "We've had a lot of unforced turnovers in previous games, but their defense forced a lot of our mistakes today."

North Hills dropped its fourth straight game and failed to score more than 40 points in any of them.

"I have some juniors starting who have played a lot of varsity ball the past couple of years," Sandherr said. "We're not scoring because we're not giving ourselves enough opportunities to shoot the basketball."

Epps knew of the Indians' tendency to turn the ball over.

"Our girls love pressure defense and we're at our best when we play that way," the Butler coach said. "We wanted them to feel nervous trying to get into their half-court sets."

Butler's lead peaked at 51-22 with 6:16 left in the game. The Tornado starters left the game shortly afterward.

Olivia Bresnahan paced Butler with 16 points, 12 rebounds, five steals and four assists. Cygan had 11 points, four assists and three steals. Katresa Savisky scored 11 points for the Tornado.

Butler (3-5, 1-0) entered the game having lost five of its last six.

"We're certainly not accustomed to losing streaks like that. We're only shooting 50 percent from the foul line and we were out-rebounded in most of those losses," Epps said. "Even though we lost to good teams, we feel like we should have won more of those games.

"These girls took that as motivation coming into this game. They know how to turn it up a notch or two when it's needed."

Megan Hans paced North Hills with 10 points. Emma Wingerd had eight rebounds for the Indians, but Butler enjoyed a 33-30 margin on the boards.

North Hills went nearly seven minutes without scoring a point, from the 3:43 mark of the second quarter to the 5:30 mark of the third.

"We needed a strong effort like this. Hopefully, this will get us going," Epps said.

NORTH HILLS 32Jessica Rectenwald 2-5 0-0 4, Ali Patton 2-7 1-2 6, Kayla Ebbert 0-0 0-0 0, Carly Herr 0-1 2-6 2, Jordan Garth 0-0 0-0 0, Megan Hans 3-9 2-2 10, Julia Klein 0-4 0-0 0, Rebecca Rapp 0-0 0-0 0, Emma Wingerd 2-8 1-2 5, Katy Turzak 2-5 1-4 5,

Totals: 11-39 7-16 32.

BUTLER 56Casey Fleeger 2-3 2-2 6, Katresa Savisky 5-6 1-2 11, Becky Nowacki 0-2 0-0 0, Olivia Bresnahan 7-18 2-4 16, Amanda Dymun 0-0 0-0 0, Amber Steinheiser 0-0 0-0 0, Jasmine Bailey 1-2 0-0 2, Emily Wise 2-3 0-0 4, Allie Houk 0-0 0-0 0, Angie Nowacki 0-1 1-3 1, Casie Cygan 5-12 0-0 11, Mackenzie O'Donnell 0-1 1-4 1, Caitlin Baxter 1-1 2-2 4,

Totals: 23-49 9-17 56.

North Hills 7 9 5 11—32Butler 9 18 14 15—563-point goals: North Hills 3 (Patton, Hans 2); Butler 1 (Cygan).

Junior varsity: Butler 38-26 (B: Caitlin Baxter 10, Mackenzie O'Donnell 10; NH: Jordan Garth 9)

Monday: Pine-Richland at Butler