Butler built a 37-21 halftime lead en route to a nonsection win over New Castle at the Ne-Ca-Hi Field House.

The Lady ’Canes (12-9) were playing without Christina Talbert, who sprained her right MCL on Friday against Ambridge. Talbert is averaging 15.3 points a game.

“If it was a playoff game, she could have played,” New Castle coach Jason Rankin said. “We’re just being precautionary; we hope it’s nothing serious and that she’ll be ready to go for the playoffs.

“Right now, her health is the most important thing.”

The WPIAL will release the playoff pairings tonight.

The Lady ’Canes rallied, opening the second half with a 10-1 run to cut the deficit to 38-31.

“Part of it was because we went zone,” Rankin said. “We’re not a great zone team because we haven’t played it a whole lot this year.

“I thought we played a lot better in the second half. We got behind the eight-ball early and that hurt.”

The Lady Tornado (7-15) quickly regrouped and pushed the lead to 44-31.

“I was happy with the fact we kept battling,” Rankin said.

Rachael Razzano, Dana Perrotta and Kelsey Scott recorded 12 points each for New Castle. Scott snared a game-high 12 rebounds as well.

Jennifer Barry paced all scorers with 19 points for Butler.