Many sports fans consider defense dull.

It takes away from the action, keeps points off the scoreboard and spectators yawning.

But defense wins.

Ask the Carolina Panthers about the Denver Broncos in last year’s Super Bowl.

Ask Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon what he would rather give up — his starting pitching rotation or a few key hitters — if he was forced to give up one or the other.

Matt Murray and the Penguins all-in defensive play had more than a little something to do with the Penguins claiming the Stanley Cup.

You get the point.

But nowhere is that point made better than in high school basketball.

Butler’s girls are averaging a mere 41 points per game, yet the Golden Tornado carried an 8-3 record into Thursday’s game against North Allegheny. In their two section wins, the Tornado scored fewer than 10 points in the first half.

Butler junior Alyssa Eyth gets it.

“We’re going to go wherever our defense leads us,” she said after a recent victory.

She’s right.

Allowing 37 points per game entering Thursday night, Butler is one of 19 WPIAL girls basketball teams in Class 3A through 6A allowing fewer than 40 points per game.

Only one of those 19 — Laurel at 6-7 — has a losing record. The worst record among the other 18 is Carlynton at 6-3.

By contrast, there are six girls teams in the WPIAL allowing an average of more than 55 points per game. The combined record of those six teams is 6-65.

Four of them — Monnessen, Propel Andrew Street, Bentworth and Laurel Highlands — are winless.

On the boys side, eight WPIAL teams are allowing fewer than 50 points per game. Only two — South Allegheny (5-6) and Armstrong (5-6) — have losing records.

Only one boys team in the WPIAL allowing more than 70 points per game — Montour (6-4, allowing 76.5 ppg.) — has a winning record.

The numbers don’t lie.

Keeping the other team off the board is step one toward success in virtually any sport.

Different strokes

Never has that been more evident than in the recent paths taken by former Steeler linebacker mates James Harrison and Joey Porter.

It’s hard to believe that Porter is only one year older than Harrison. The pair used to wreak havoc on opposing offenses together. They won a Super Bowl as teammates that way.

After “un-retiring” a few years ago, Harrison has maintained rigorous workouts and has developed into one of the most positove forces on the Steelers’ defensive unit yet again.

Porter is a linebacker coach for Pittsburgh and put himself in a bad situation outside of a Pittsburgh bar hours after the team’s playoff win.

Harrison is still destructive to the other team. Porter became a distraction to his own.