By RON PONIEWASZ JR.
rponiewasz@ncnewsonline.com

The streak is over for the New Castle High girls basketball team.

Butler ended the Lady ’Canes’ 17-game Section 3-AAAA winning string with a 47-42 verdict last night at the Ne-Ca-Hi Field House.

It was the second loss in a row for the Lady ’Canes (5-1, 9-3 overall). Meanwhile, Butler (6-0, 15-1) made it 14 in a row. New Castle is ranked third in the latest Pittsburgh Post Gazette poll and Butler is fifth.

“We beat ourselves; it’s plain and simple,” New Castle coach Luann Grybowski said. “This will tell us what our character is.

“If we can rebound and do what we’re capable of doing, we’ll be OK. Or we’ll go the other way. We’ll have to see.”

The Lady ’Canes hadn’t lost consecutive games since December 2004.

New Castle went 12-0 last year in the section, marking the first time the program recorded a perfect league ledger. The Lady Tornado knocked off the Lady ’Canes in the section finale in the 2005-2006 season on New Castle’s home floor.

“It’s not a magical solution,” Butler coach Dorothea Epps said of her team’s success against the Lady ’Canes. “It’s good teams that play very good basketball.

“We match up well with them and they match up well with us.”

“It’s a huge rivalry. It always has been and I’m sure it always will be,” said New Castle senior standout Logan Hartman. “They’re extremely prepared and they have great players and coaches.”

The teams were deadlocked at 29 after three quarters. Hartman, a Davidson College recruit, made two buckets in transition to give the Lady ’Canes a 37-33 advantage with 5:37 left, but from there, New Castle struggled on offense.

Butler’s Cassie Cygan buried a 3-pointer at the 5:04 mark to ignite a 10-0 run. Lyndsy Day, a senior guard, got five of the points in the run and finished with a career-high 20 points.

“We go up four in the fourth quarter and we give up three 3s and a drive to the basket uncontested,” Grybowski said. “There’s just no excuse for that.”

Trailing 43-41, the ’Lady Canes still had a chance, but let it slip away. Abby Allen missed a 3-pointer, but New Castle snared the rebound. Tasia Wise was open, but she bobbled the ball and was whistled for traveling with 13.7 seconds left.

Day, who sat out last season with a torn ACL, made four foul shots to seal the victory. According to Epps, Day is an 85 percent foul shooter.
“She came up big at the end,” Epps said. “That’s why we like having the ball in her hands.”

The Lady ’Canes started slow, falling behind 7-2 after the first quarter. They recovered nicely in the second period by going on a 10-0 run.

“They were guarding the passing lanes and we couldn’t get it inside and we weren’t hitting any shots,” Hartman said of the team’s slow start.

The Lady Tornado recovered with a 6-0 run and went on to grab a 19-17 halftime lead.

“We tried to get out and run,” Epps said. “They started getting back on us and that was an issue for us.”

Wise paced New Castle with 17 points and nine rebounds while Hartman supplied 12 markers.

“Tasia played well all around with the exception of a couple of defensive assignments,” Grybowski said.

The Lady ’Canes committed 21 turnovers compared to 17 for Butler. However, the Lady Tornado turned it over just twice in the second half.

“We were on a good roll there and three or four turnovers got them right back in the game,” Epps said of the 15 first-half miscues. “On their floor, you don’t want to give them momentum; you want to try and avoid that as much as possible.

“We talked at halftime that if we could stop turning the ball over we had a shot at winning.”

New Castle returns to action at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow when it hosts North Hills in another section encounter.