VANDERGRIFT — It may have appeared to the Kiski Area girls basketball team like Butler had six girls on the court.

"They harassed us," said first-year Kiski coach Chris Kallock.

Butler changed up its defense early in the second quarter and in the process changed up the flow of the game on the way to a convincing 44-29 road victory Tuesday night.

The Golden Tornado switched from a man-to-man defense to various forms of a zone and turned a 14-13 deficit into a 35-15 lead 11 minutes later.

The 22-1 run was sparked by the smothering defense, which forced 20 turnovers in the first half and 34 in the game.

"We rushed against their zone," Kallock said. "We didn't react well. We're young at guard, but Butler is tough on defense and we had too many turnovers."

The defensive effort made Butler coach Dorothea Epps smile.

The Tornado played very much like their moniker on defense — a swirling menace that left a swath of destruction whenever Kiski tried to get into a half-court offense.

It got so bad for the Cavaliers in the second quarter that they had three times as many turnovers (15) as field goal attempts (five).

They had seven straight possessions that resulted in a turnover before they could even get off a shot.

"We felt we needed to make the game more up-tempo," Epps said. "That seemed to rattle them a lot more. We felt if we kept the pressure on, we'd get some junk points."

That happened in the third quarter as Butler was able to capitalize on the slew of turnovers it was forcing by outscoring the Cavaliers 16-4.

By then, Kiski (1-2) was all but out of the game.

"At halftime I talked to them about turning up their pressure and giving a better defensive effort, and I think that's what turned the game around for us," Epps said.

The zone was also a calculated gamble by Epps, who knew very little about Kiski.

She wanted to see if the Cavaliers could pull Butler out of its zone with outside shooting. The Cavaliers weren't able to do so.

"We didn't know if they could really shoot or not," Epps said. "We took a risk and it worked out for us."

Caitlin Noble was just 1-of-7 for Kiski from beyond the 3-point arc. She did finish with 15 points, but shot just 5-of-17 from the field.

Meanwhile, there was nothing wrong offensively with Butler's Amy Achesinski.

The 6-foot junior showed off her post moves and strength inside, scoring 19 points to lead the Tornado.

"She's our go-to player inside," Epps said. "We felt we needed to get her more involved offensively and that's what we did."

With the win, Butler is off to a 3-0 start and has looked impressive doing it.

But Epps is cautious not to get too caught up in the big beginning.

"It is a nice start," Epps said. "We have to try to keep every win and every game in perspective. We really haven't done anything yet. This is just a tune-up before we get into our section, but we have shown that we have a lot of guts and a lot of heart and don't back down from anybody."

BUTLER 44Rachel Barry 1-6 3-4 5, Karissa King 0-0 0-0 0, Lyndsay Day 1-1 0-0 2, Elizabeth Schultz 0-0 0-0 0, Ashley Nocera 1-2 0-0 2, Kelly Crater 0-0 0-0 0, Amy Achesinski 8-16 3-3 19, Maria Barotho 1-1 0-0 2, Julie Ehrman 3-11 0-1 8, Samantha Karn 2-6 0-1 4, Michelle Ritchey 0-1 2-2 2. Totals: 17-44 8-11 44

KISKI AREA 29Blair Saul 1-4 0-1 2, Lindsay Nies 1-2 2-3 4, Tanisha Wheatley 0-1 0-1 0, Amanda Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Amber Wolfe 2-5 1-2 5, Caitlin Noble 5-17 4-6 15, Sarah Cappo 0-3 1-2 1, Tasha Reid 1-4 0-0 2. Totals: 10-37 8-15 29

3-point goals: Ehrman 2, Noble

JV: Butler 41-20

Wednesday: Butler at Hampton