(Butler, PA) The Butler County Community College women’s basketball team returns one of the nation’s top 3-point shooters and three other players from a 2022-2023 squad that won the program’s sixth conference championship and at 19-6 finished with its best record since at least 2009.
Guard Emma Johns’ 74 successful 3-point shots ranked sixth nationally last season among players on 72 National Junior College Athletic Association Division III programs.
“They really helped the team out in some sticky situations,” guard Sara Soltis said.
“A really strong shooter,” forward Brooke Manuel said.
“Once she gets past half-court, she can shoot pretty deep and she’s pretty accurate,” first-year coach Dan Odell said.
Odell, a former basketball player at Panama Central High School in Chautauqua County, N.Y., served as an assistant in 2022-2023 to Lydia Roth. Roth was BC3’s interim head coach following the retirement of Dick Hartung in March 2022.
“I just turn a switch and I get a feel for it. Shooting has always come easy to me. I just let it fly.”
Johns had at least one successful 3-point shot in 23 games and as many as eight in the Pioneers’ 76-49 victory against Allegany College of Maryland in January, when she scored a season-high 32 points.
“I just turn a switch and I get a feel for it,” said Johns, who averaged 15.2 points and led the Pioneers in scoring seven times. “Shooting has always come easy to me. I just let it fly.”
The Pioneers won nine games last year by 30 or more points, including a 72-42 victory over Westmoreland County Community College in the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship.
“It would be great to spread it around a bit, but (Emma Johns) is probably the best scorer that we have. Other teams know about her.”
Johns, Soltis, Manuel and forward Zoe Morley are expected to lead a 2023-2024 BC3 squad seeking the program’s seventh WPCC title and fourth NJCAA Division III Region 20 championship.
Johns and Manuel are graduates of Karns City Area Junior-Senior High School; Soltis, of Mars; and Morley, of Portersville Christian.
Manuel averaged 6 points and 5.3 rebounds in 2022-2023; Soltis 4.8 points and 2.5 rebounds; and Morley, 3.4 points and 4.2 rebounds.
“It would be great to spread it around a bit,” Odell said, “but (Johns) is probably the best scorer that we have. Other teams know about her. We’ll see how it goes the first couple of games and how our game plan will go. Our offense is focused on getting her scoring opportunities.”
The Pioneers will introduce more screens to create opportunities for her, Johns said.
“And I am working on driving more to the basket,” she said, “so other teams won’t know exactly how to guard me. And that is what I want. Last year I was pretty predictable with the 3-pointer because teams let me shoot it.”
“Stepping up to be the big”
Johns’ success outside last year can also be attributed to Aslyn Pry, a 5-foot-10 All-American forward who led the Pioneers with 20.7 points and 16.4 rebounds per game.
“I’m going to do my best in stepping up to be the big because we don’t have Aslyn Pry,” said Manuel, who is 5-7. “She was our main rebounder and our main way to work the ball through the middle of the court. So I am trying to do that this year.”
BC3 has added freshmen forward Lizzie DeRose, Karns City; guard Gianna Talento, Seneca Valley; point guard Jozee Weaver, Keystone; and sophomore guard-forward Marra Patton, Karns City.
DeRose is a health care science student; Johns, physical education-physical activity and fitness management; Manuel, early childhood education (Pre K-4); Morley, general studies; Patton and Weaver, health and physical education-teacher education; Soltis, Nursing, R.N.; and Talento, marketing management.
