BUTLER TWP — The cheers were much louder than Mackenzie Craig expected.

After she sank a free throw against Potomac State in a game late last month, the Butler County Community College bench erupted.

It also sent the Pioneer fans in attendance into full-throated bellows.

Craig, a Karns City graduate and 5-foot-10 sophomore forward on the BC3 women's basketball team, looked around, befuddled.

“I was a little surprised at the reaction,” Craig said, laughing. “I mean, it was just a foul shot.”

But it wasn't merely a made free throw in a regular-season game.

It was a record-breaker.

With that shot, Craig snapped the BC3 women's career scoring mark of 1,093 points that was set just two years earlier by Butler High School graduate Julia Baxter.

Craig was utterly unaware that she had snapped the record until a teammate let her in on the secret.

“Casey Kretzer turned to me and said, 'Hey, you broke the record,'” Craig said. “Then I was like, 'Oh. Oh! That explains it.'”

No one — not even Craig herself — envisioned she would break the mark set by Baxter that seemed at the time unbreakable.

After all, Craig came to the Pioneers from Karns City set on playing just volleyball.

She had no intention of suiting up for the BC3 basketball team until men's and women's coach at the school, Dick Hartung, asked her to give it a shot.

Craig smiled and said yes.

Two years later, her assault on the record books has left Hartung in awe.

Following a 39-point, 30-rebound performance in an 83-72 win at home Friday over the Community College of Beaver County, Craig has 1,252 points and 912 rebounds in her career.

“When Baxter left, I said to myself, 'That will never be broken,'” Hartung said. “And here were are, just two years later. Boom! I couldn't believe it. She just came in and put her nose to the grindstone and kicked rear.”

Craig admitted she was apprehensive at first on the basketball court for the Pioneers.

But Hartung instilled in her the confidence that she lacked coming from Karns City, she said.

Craig had a solid career for the Gremlins, but hadn't accomplished anything like what she has at BC3.

“I did not expect anything like this,” Craig said. “The girls that I've played with, last year and this year, have been amazing. I give it all to Hartung, (assistant coach Kathy Wood) and these girls. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to do any of this.”

Craig has drawn heaps of attention this season as teams have set out to limit her as much as they can.

It hasn't worked.

Instead, Craig has continued to put up gaudy numbers and the teammates around her have also benefitted.

“Her average is five points down from last year. It's not because she's gotten worse,” Hartung said. “Teams we play have just decided they're putting a person in front, a person in back and they're challenging others around Craig.

“But you know what happened?” Hartung added. “Kretzer has gotten better. (Carly) Burdett has gotten better. Stretch (Jenna Heitzenrater) has gotten better. They've all gotten better.”

And so has Craig, who has shown a knack for being able to score and grab rebounds over players who are bigger and taller than she is — sometimes more than one.

“I like playing against girls who are bigger than me because it gives me that challenge,” Craig said. “In high school, I would have just turned my back and gone the other way, but here, I go after it because it's what I gotta do.”

Craig said she sometimes marvels at what she's been able to do.

What is the most surreal to Craig is that she has eclipsed the records set by Baxter.

“It means everything,” Craig said. “I just want to say I look up to Julia Baxter. I never got the chance to play with her, but she was the one who proved it could be done. It's kind of cliche and kind of a bad pun, but she was the pioneer of basketball here.”

Craig will put on the BC3 uniform at least one more time as the Pioneers take on Pitt-Titusville Saturday in the WPCC title game.

When the season does end for Craig and her Pioneer career is over, she hopes it won't be her final basketball stop.

Craig plans on attending Indiana (Pa.) University and said she is “probably close to 90 percent” going to walk on to the basketball team there.

“I would like to play at a higher level, but we'll see what happens,” she said.

The main stumbling block, Craig said, is financial.

“I need help paying for college,” she said. “If I get some money, that would be nice.”

Craig also received interest from Fresno State. The coach there requested film of Craig.

“We don't have film,” Craig said, laughing.

Even if a school approached her with an offer, Craig said she would turn it down.

“I'm dead-set on IUP,” she said.

Craig will major in criminology at IUP and will enter the police academy when she is done. Her goal is to become a state trooper.

Sometimes she is saddened by the fact that money may keep her from playing basketball again.

“Holding me back? Yeah, it is,” Craig said. “People always ask me, 'What are you going to do?' I'm the type of person to just see how it goes. I try to stay positive.”