After three quarters last night, it looked as if the Upper St. Clair girls’ basketball team had finally run out of magic.
The Panthers trailed Butler by seven points with less than six minutes to play in a PIAA Class AAAA second-round game at North Allegheny.
But just when it seemed that the Panthers were doomed, they reached into their hat and again pulled out a rabbit.
Upper St. Clair, the WPIAL champion, outscored the Golden Tornado by 15 points in the final five minutes to rally for a 56-48 victory and advance to the quarterfinals.
The Panthers (29-1) will play State College (25-2) Friday night.
“This trend of making every game close started in January,” said Upper St. Clair Coach Ernie Koontz. “I just hope my heart holds out because these games are too close for comfort. We just did not execute for three quarters, and Butler’s defense had a lot to do with that.”
Butler scored the first basket of the game and led the entire first half until Upper St. Clair tied the score, 22-22, just before the half.
Butler then made a 15-8 run to lead 37-30 at the end of the third quarter.
The two teams traded baskets to open the fourth, and Butler led, 39-32, with 5:56 remaining. But the Panthers made a 9-2 run in the next three minutes to tie the score, 41-41, with 3:42 to play.
Butler forward Danielle Koehring fouled out, and the Panthers took their first lead of the game on a jumper by Kyra Kaylor.
With Koehring out of the game, the Panthers made a 7-1 run over the next minute before Butler center Kim Nowakowski also fouled out.
The Panthers scored 26 points in the fourth quarter, making 14 of 22 free-throw attempts in the quarter.
Kaylor finished with a game-high 21 points and had 11 rebounds.
Nowakowski finished with 10 points and six rebounds. Maura Connelly led Butler with 13.
“In the fourth quarter, we used two guards to handle the ball and put Kyra Kaylor in the post,” Koontz said. “We just felt like we didn’t make their big people work hard enough on defense the first three quarters.”
Butler Coach Jonna Burke said: “I’m not very happy with the way the game was officiated in the fourth quarter. Those two kids have not fouled out of a game this year. Once we started getting called for some ticky-tack fouls, that’s when they took the momentum.
“I feel bad for our kids because we really believed we could win this game, but once we lost our two big kids we ran out of gas.”
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