FOX CHAPEL — Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic guards Mia Palmer and Evelyn Brazil were tasked with trying to create extra possessions for their offense.

The second-seeded Trojanettes were struggling to find their footing in their Class A WPIAL first-round playoff game versus the 15th-seeded Ellis School.

Palmer had six steals and Brazil four as North Catholic forced 32 turnvoers in a 67-32 win over the Tigers.

“Our double-teaming is a strong point. That gets an opponent to throw the ball away,” Palmer said. “Keeping our girl in front of us helps force a lot of turnovers.”

North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann was especially pleased with Palmer, who finished with six points and two assists.

“She was like our heart and soul today,” Rottmann said. “Her and Evelyn can set that tone of the defensive pressure. They’re relentless.”

The Trojanettes will face seventh-seeded Jefferson-Morgan (20-2) in the quarterfinals next Saturday at a site and time to be determined. The Rockets advanced with a 53-42 win over Cornell.

While North Catholic’s defense wasn’t perfect — it was whistled for enough fouls to put the Tigers (10-10) in the bonus in the first half — the Trojanettes didn’t trail for long.

After the Ellis School’s Dayna Rouse gave the Tigers their biggest lead, 7-4, on a layup with 4:53 in the first quarter, North Catholic erased the lead in seven seconds.

First, Sam Breen scored on an offensive rebound.

Then she stole the inbounds pass and set up Abby Goetz for a jumper to put the Trojanettes (18-5) ahead 8-7 with 3:57 left in the first quarter.

“We were forcing it,” Rottmann said. “I don’t think we were letting the flow happen. I think they came in and thought we could do more things and we weren’t working the ball well and we were off.”

Rouse led the Tigers with 14 points, while Houston Curtis added 11.

The Ellis School scored 12 points in the first quarter, then scored 12 combined in the next two quarters.

“We wanted to make sure we weren’t turning the ball over,” Ellis School coach Quinzale Taylor said. “We did our scouting, watching film and things of that nature. We hoped we could get back defensively and stop them with our zone.”

North Catholic stretched its lead to 34-17 at halftime and continued to put the pressure on.

A layup from Breen extended North Catholic’s lead to a game-high 37 points, 59-22, with less than minute left in the third quarter.

“After we settled down, we had to talk at halftime, get our team together and regroup,” Palmer said. “The third quarter was a stronger performance for us.”

In the second half, North Catholic ran its offense through Breen.

Working out of the post, the 6-foot-2 sophomore center contributed 26 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocks.

Breen was happy with how the Trojanettes overcame a slow start on offense.

“I think it was important, because we started off pretty slow,” Breen said. “The next couple games we need to start of games like we played in the third quarter. We just need to play like that through the rest of the playoffs.”

The Trojanettes outscoered Ellis 26-5 in the third quarter to put the game away. CW North Catholic held a 34-19 lead at halftime of the contest.

ELLIS SCHOOL 36

Kevelis Matthews-Alvarado 1 2-6 5, May Milch 1 0-0 2, Isabel Brooke 1 1-2 3, Houston Curtis 4 1-2 12, Dayna Rouse 7 0-1 15, Mikeala Brown 0 0-0 0, Kayla King 0 0-0 0, Gabriella Boyiadzis 0 0-0 0, Lilli Christ 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 4-11 36.

CW NORTH CATHOLIC 67

Evelyn Brazil 3 0-1 7, Abby Goetz 3 1-2 7, Mia Palmer 3 0-0 6, Sam Breen 11 4-5 26, Ashley Robbins 2 0-0 4, Mary Cassamassa 6 0-0 12, Malaya Franklin-Marshall 1 0-0 2, Ellysa Paras 1 0-0 3, Amanda Bucklew 0 0-0 0, Emma Cullo 0 0-0 0, Lillia Smyers 0 0-0 0, Brooke Horton 0 0-0 0. Totals: 30 5-8 67.

Ellis School 12 7 5 12 — 36

North Catholic19 15 26 7 — 67

3-point goals: Ellis School 4 (Curtis3, Matthews-Alvarado); North Catholic 2 (Brazil, Paras)

Saturday: North Catholic vs. Jefferson-Morgan site and time to be determined