Players on the Butler bench cheer on their teammates in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's WPIAL playoff game with Gateway. The cheering didn't help as the second-seeded Golden Tornado lost a 45-43 decision to the Gators.

PLUM— There were nine seconds left and Butler trailed by two points.

The ball, the shot and the game were going to be placed in Olivia Bresnahan's hands.

"Everybody in the gym knew that,"Gateway coach Cornelious Nesbit said. "The best player is always going to take that last shot."

Bresnahan took the inbounds pass, dribbled the length of the floor, spun in the lane — and the ball was knocked out of her hands as Gateway's Kate Kromka gleefully dribbled away the final two seconds.

The Gators (14-10) stunned second-seeded Butler, 45-43, in a first-round WPIALClass AAAA girls basketball playoff game Tuesday night at Plum High School.

"Our plan was to double-team (Bresnahan) with our two big girls and see if she could shoot over them,"Nesbit said.

Bresnahan couldn't. But she might have been fouled.

"Ithought she was fouled a few times during that last play, based on what the officials were calling all night,"Butler coach Dorothea Epps said. "They should have put her on the line and let the game be decided that way.

"It really doesn't matter, though. This game never should have come down to that."

The lead changed hands six times and the Golden Tornado (19-3) never led by more than two points. Gateway's biggest lead was eight, 17-9 with 6:19 left in the first half, and the Gators had a 37-30 advantage and the ball with 3:56 remaining in the game.

Amanda Dymun came up with a steal and a layup, then added two free throws after Butler stole the inbounds pass. Bresnahan stole the ball and laid it in to cut the gap to 37-36 with 2:23 on the clock.

<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE64851218.MOV" width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>Brianne Garness sank one of two free throws for Gateway, but Casie Cygan responded with a 3-pointer and the Tornado had a 39-38 lead with 2 minutes to play.The lead changed hands for the final time when Kate Kromka sank a layup for the Gators with 1:48 left. Gateway went on to miss five free throws in the final 52 seconds.The Gators were 12-of-27 from the line."We played the type of game we wanted, but the missed free throws almost killed us,"Nesbit said.Butler trailed 44-40 when Bresnahan nailed a deep 3-pointer with 10.8 seconds left. Kromka sank one of two free throws with nine ticks on the clock, setting up the game's final play.The Tornado had 13 first-half turnovers to Gateway's three, 18 giveaways to the Gators' 11 overall. The Gators succeeded in forcing Butler to play a halfcourt game most of the night.Whenever a Gateway player was at the free-throw line, Nesbit dropped his other four players back by the opposite hoop."With Bresnahan, Butler loves to run and they're great in transition. We couldn't afford to get into that type of game with them,"Nesbit said."We knew that's what they were gonna do,"Epps said. "The thing is, you can't play nervous and you have to make your shots."It takes guts and heart. Tonight, we played like they were the No. 2 seed,"she added.Freshman forward Destiny Brown paced Gateway with 23 points and added six rebounds. The goddaughter of the Detroit Pistons' Richard Hamilton, she is averaging 21.5 points per game.No other Gateway player averages in double figures.Bresnahan paced Butler with 20 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. Jenna Manuel added 10 points and 10 boards, but played only on offense in the fourth quarter after collecting her fourth personal foul with 7:11 remaining.Dymun had eight points and six rebounds for Butler.The Tornado's 43 points marked a season-low. Butler failed to score fewer than 50 points in just one other game — a 49-33 win at Shaler Jan. 19."We worked so hard to get the No. 2 seed, but going 19-2 in the regular season means nothing if we're going to tighten up in the playoffs,"Epps said. "We have to find a way to get past this."<B>GATEWAY45Diane DiLorenzo 2-8 1-2 5, Kate Kromka 2-8 1-2 5, Gina Petrilli 1-5 4-6 7, Destiny Brown 10-21 3-11 23, Brianne Garness 1-2 1-2 3, Anna Coutsoumbis 0-0 2-2 2. </B>Totals: 16-44 12-27 45<B>BUTLER 43Casey Fleeger 0-2 0-0 0, Katresa Savisky 0-0 0-0 0, Olivia Bresnahan 7-16 5-9 20, Amanda Dymun 3-5 2-2 8, Ali Sedwick 1-2 0-0 2, Casie Cygan 1-9 0-1 3, Rachel Doutt 0-0 0-0 0, Jenna Manuel 4-12 1-2 10.</B> Totals: 16-46 8-14 43<B>Gateway 11 12 6 16—45Butler 9 9 9 16—433-point goals:</B> Petrilli; Manuel, Cygan, Bresnahan