MOON TWP — Unfortunately, members of a senior class supporting each other is not a given in high school sports.

But when it comes to the Butler High girls basketball team, it might as well be.

The team is led by senior guard Olivia Bresnahan, who is pacing all of Butler County area girls with 18.7 points per game. She was recently nominated for the McDonalds' All-America Team and scored a game-high 18 points in Butler's 51-36 win over Moon on Saturday.

Bresnahan has already committed to play her college basketball at Florida State University, but on the other hand, she is just one of the Golden Tornado's seven seniors.

The group also includes Casey Fleeger, Emily Wise, Katresa Savisky, Becky Nowacki, Amanda Dymun and Casie Cygan.

"She looks at herself as just another player on the team," Nowacki said of Bresnahan. "She really doesn't like talking about all of her accomplishments."

"She would rather see one of her teammates score than herself," said Fleeger. "She likes to see us do well."

Added Wise, "Olivia is such a humble person. We're all happy for her."

The Tornado (15-5 overall) wrapped up a perfect section record at 12-0 with the victory over Moon.

The team is making use of the youth at the other end of the roster.

Freshmen and sophomores see a good deal of playing time and the seniors are making sure those younger players will be leaders themselves once the Class of 2010 is gone.

"We have high expectations no matter who is on the floor," said Coach Dorothea Epps. "You have to work hard and compete every night. That's the message the seniors are sending to the younger players."

The good will that abounds among the team's seniors stems from all of them focusing on team goals.

"All of them have bought into their roles," said Epps. "They all have that attitude, they want to win and they don't care who is scoring.

"They know that's the only way we're going to be successful," she added.

Butler's goals include exorcising the demons from last season, which ended with a WPIAL first-round playoff loss to Gateway following a 19-2 regular season and a Section 3-AAAA title.

"I think it's in the back of all our minds, we don't want that to happen again." said Savisky.

"It's good we're peaking now," said Cygan. "We didn't play our best game (Saturday), but we all feel we've played our best basketball over the last few weeks."

Another benefit of a long playoff run is that it would keep the tight-knit seniors together on the floor.

Savisky, Cygan, Fleeger and Wise have all played on the same team since the fifth grade.

"We're all so close, it's going to be tough to walk away from this team," said Savisky.

"We're not all business, we have fun, too," said Epps. "We keep it light sometimes and I think that's one of the things that makes the girls want to come to practice every day."

BUTLER 51Casey Fleeger 0 1-2 1, Katresa Savisky 1 4-4 6, Olivia Bresnahan 7 4-5 18, Amanda Dymun 1 0-0 3, Jasmine Bailey 2 0-0 4, Casie Cygan 5 0-3 11, Ali Sedwick 4 0-0 8, Becky Nowacki 0 0-0 0, Emily Wise 0 0-0 0, Mackenzie O'Donnell 0 0-0 0, Cait Baxter 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 20 9-14 51.

MOON 36Natalie Corso 3 2-2 10, Erin Kelly 1 3-4 5, Jharrin Gill 3 0-0 7, Marquesha Mackey 2 2-2 6, Dana Magnelli 3 0-0 6, Zoey Cook 1 0-0 2, Dani Lewis 0 0-2 0, Sarah Kelly 0 0-0 0, Jackie Caceres 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 13 7-10 36.

Butler 11 15 15 10—51Moon 9 8 11 8—363-point goals: Butler 2 (Dymun, Cygan); Moon 3 (Corso 2, Gill).

Tuesday: Plum at Butler