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Mixed blessings
Tornado girls get past determined NA
By John Enrietto
Eagle Sports Editor
BUTLER TWP— Trap game, indeed. But Butler escaped.
Sophomore guard Olivia Bresnahan sank only one of four free throws in the final 15 seconds, but she snared a critical defensive rebound and a game-clinching steal as the Golden Tornado girls basketball team held off North Allegheny 59-57 Friday night.
Butler (14-1, 5-0) never trailed. The victory was never easy, either.
"That old adage, a win is a win is a win — it's very true in this case,"Tornado coach Dorothea Epps said. "We'll take it."
Butler built a 13-2 lead before the game was six minutes old, only to see NA(5-7, 0-5) answer with a 9-0 run to pull within two.
The Tigers eventually knotted the game at 18, then watched Butler go on a 9-0 run. The Tornado's biggest lead was 36-23 with 5:18 left in the third quarter.
"It's tough having to keep coming back from 10-point deficits,"NAcoach Sherri McConnell said. "It takes a lot out of you."
North Allegheny trailed by 10 with six minutes remaining in the game, but the Tigers never quit.
"This was definitely a trap game for us,"Epps said. "We still have the Vegas blues and we've got (unbeaten)New Castle on Tuesday. It would have been easy for our girls to overlook North Allegheny."
Butler returned from Las Vegas last weekend after winning a four-game tournament there.
"(The Tigers)are a rival and they are no 0-4 basketball team. Even when we jumped out early, I knew they'd come back. We were gonna take their best shot,"Epps said.
Led by freshman guard Kelly Brennan, the Tigers worked their way back into the game. Butler tried knocking them out as a Karissa King 3-pointer with 2:35 left gave the Tornado a five-point lead and a Lyndsy Day layup maintained that margin with 1:30 to go.
AJackie Lang layup, a Butler turnover and two free throws by Andrea Elmore pulled NAwithin 58-57 with 18.6 seconds left.
Enter Bresnahan.
She missed two free throws with 15 seconds left, but hustled back on defense to grab the rebound from Brennan's missed shot with 5.5 seconds remaining.
Fouled immediately, Bresnahan made one of two free throws. She then stole the ball near midcourt and dribbled away the final ticks on the clock.
"I know I've been struggling at the foul line,"Bresnahan said. "I'll just keep shooting them and they'll start going in.
"If I can't help the team there, I can make up for it in other ways. You still have to focus on the game."
Bresnahan sank eight of 18 free throws Friday, but still scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had four steals.
"She plays like a junior or senior,"Epps said. "Olivia knows what she has to do for us to win and she does it."
Erica Miller added 16 points and nine rebounds for Butler, connecting on a pair of 3-pointers and sinking eight of nine free throws. Jenna Manuel had nine points and seven boards.
"Erica is a coach's favorite type of player,"Epps said. "She goes 90 mph and gives 150 percent all the time. She's in the middle of everything."
Brennan had 18 points for NAwith Lang adding 16 points and eight rebounds. The Tigers suffered 19 turnovers.
The Tornado junior varsity improved to 10-0 with a 56-36 victory. Casey Fleeger had 15 points and Rachel Doutt added 13.
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