(Butler, PA) The Butler County Community College women’s basketball team looks to defend two consecutive Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference titles this season behind a squad described by coach Dick Hartung as being “as good as we’ve ever been.”
The Pioneers’ lineup includes 5-foot-10 guard-forward Aslyn Pry, a three-year starter and 1,000-point scorer at Moniteau Junior-Senior High School who after her senior season in 2020-2021 was named to the Pennsylvania Sports Writers’ Class 3A all-state girls squad.
BC3’s roster also includes former Butler High teammates Emma Monteleone and Hailey Metzger, starters on the girls basketball squad in their junior and senior seasons.
“We’ve got only six players, but we’re as good as we’ve ever been as a women’s team,” Hartung said.
The Pioneers in recent seasons have had National Junior College Athletic Association Division III All-Americans in Julia Baxter, who became the program’s first 1,000-point scorer and finished with 1,093 from 2015-2017, and Mackenzie Craig, who scored 1,277 points from 2017-2019.
Pry averaged 19.9 points and 14.2 rebounds in her senior season at Moniteau, and had 53 steals and 51 blocked shots.
“We have never had a woman who was player of the year in the county.”
She was also selected as the District 9 girls player of the year, as the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference’s most valuable girls player, and as the Butler Eagle’s girls basketball player of the year after the 2020-2021 season.
“We have never had a woman who was player of the year in the county,” Hartung said.
Pry “can play inside. She can play outside,” Hartung said. “One of the things I plan on doing is when she rebounds the ball, we’ll have people spotting up and posting up and we will flatten the whole thing out.”
Pry ranks seventh in Moniteau’s all-time girls scoring list with 1,046 points and holds the program’s single-game rebound record with 30.
“She’ll be good,” Hartung said, “and make all her teammates better.”
Her BC3 teammates include Zoey Hillwig, Moniteau; Leah Barclay, Harvest Academy; and Taylor Yost, Seneca Valley.
“We have six women who can catch, dribble and play,” Hartung said. “I could put any of them on the floor and they are all skilled.”
Monteleone and Metzger, both guards, “are tough,” Hartung said. “They can shoot. They can handle. And they’ve got an edge to them.”
The Pioneers won WPCC crowns in 2020 and 2019, and in 2018 and 2017. BC3 did not play in 2020-2021 as a result of a NJCAA decision to postpone athletics with regard to COVID-19.
BC3’s chase for a third consecutive conference title will depend on its shooting, said Pry, and teamwork, Monteleone added.
“We really don’t have a lot of height,” Pry said. “But we do have some speed. Hopefully we can push the ball and be a good shooting team.”
“We have to be aggressive,” Monteleone said, “and work as a team.”
