BUTLER TWP — Calling it a miracle season would be a stretch.

But Butler graduate Casie Cygan and her La Roche College women's basketball teammates are putting together a darn good one.

Cygan, a junior guard, is leading the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference in scoring at 20.3 points per game. The Redhawks (9-1, 4-0) are atop the AMCC standings and are receiving votes in the NCAA Division III Top 25 poll.

La Roche has never been ranked in the Top 25. The team may get there this year with an eight-player roster.

“Our numbers are way down,” Cygan said. “A lot of girls transferred out. We had 20 players on the roster my first two years here.”

None of the eight current Redhawks are seniors.

“I know I've got the nucleus here right now to win with,” said first-year coach Kamela Gissendanner, a former Penn State standout who played in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks. “My job in recruiting this year will be to build depth around these players.”

Cygan is second in the AMCC in minutes played, averaging more than 36 minutes per contest. She is averaging 4.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.1 steals per game as well.

Cygan has hit 27 3-pointers and is shooting 82.9 percent from the floor.

“She has developed into a well-rounded player for us,” Gissendanner said. “I'd like to see her take her pull-up jumper a little more, maybe, but Casie has been really solid overall.

“She can hit the three, but she also runs the floor extremely well. She scores a lot of points in transition.”

Cygan has blossomed this season after averaging 10.3 and 11.3 points per game, respectively, her freshman and sophomore years.

“With only eight players, we're all being counted on to do a lot of things,” she said. “That's definitely helped my game. I have more responsibility on the court.

“I've played a lot of roles. I even played the point one game ... I've never played the point in my life. That was different.”

La Roche and Cygan are having a different kind of season.

Cygan struck for a career-high 31 points in a recent 101-46 trouncing of Mt. Aloysius. The Redhawks are 5-1 in non-conference games thus far in 2012-13.

“That's probably the biggest difference for us,” Cygan said. “We've struggled to get votes in the poll because we've rarely won outside of our conference before.”

One constant has been the presence of Andy Cygan, Casie's father, at all of her games. He hasn't missed one since her fifth-grade season.

That includes trips to Orlando and Las Vegas, and drives in excess of 200 miles to catch La Roche road games.

“I always talk to her after each game in person, then we talk about the game on the phone as I'm driving home, when we have more time,” Cygan's father said.

“It's nice to know he's always there supporting me,” Cygan said.

When his daughter reached Butler High School, Andy Cygan admitted telling Golden Tornado girls basketball coach Dorothea Epps to “kick my daughter in the you know what if you think she needs it.”

“I wanted her (Epps) to make a ballplayer out of her,” he said. “Dorothea will either run you out of the gym or she'll make a young lady out of you. I appreciate Dorothea in turning Casie into a tough player. One day, Casie will realize what Dorothea meant to her.”

She already does.

When Cygan arrived at La Roche, then-coach Eddie Benton ran rough practices and was big on discipline.

“Some girls had to get used to it ... I was already used to it,” Cygan said. “Coach Epps did a lot for me.

“Our new coach relates to the players reallty well. She's younger and we relate to her. She was a player herself not long ago and recognizes when we need a break.”

Gissendanner says she doesn't work her players hard in practice.

“I'm not going to wear them out then,” she said. “Come game time, it's full go. That's where we need all-out effort.”

Epps said the work ethic Cygan developed as a high school player is paying off in college.

“We had to push Casie when she first got here. We got her to work hard,” the Butler coach said. “She's become a strong player on both ends of the floor and she worked hard for it.

“As a coach, I'm proud of what she's accompkished. She's not only succeeding at the college level, she's excelling at it.”