FOX CHAPEL — North Catholic produces plenty of offense — with help from its defense.

Doesn't Valley know it.

The Vikings turned the ball over 29 times Saturday — 18 times in the first half — leading to numerous transition buckets in the Trojans' 77-60 WPIAL Class 3A boys basketball tournament win at Fox Chapel High School.

Summit Academy was knocked out of the 2A playoffs by a 56-51 loss to Shenango.

North Catholic (19-4) entered the game as the second-highest scoring team in the entire WPIAL. The Trojans' 76 points per game average trails only Pine-Richland's 79.7.

“We want to play fast and we like to turn people over to do that,” North Catholic coach Dave DeGregorio said. “Getting into transition is a big part of what we do.”

Junior forward Jackson Paschall, who scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the first half, said the Trojans' quick switch from defense to offense “is primarily how we win.

“We're good at turning steals into quick points the other way,” he said.

North Catholic used a 17-0 run in the first quarter to turn a 6-6 tie into a 23-6 lead. Valley (8-11) never got back in the game.

“We knew coming into this game that they get a lot of offense off their defense,” said Valley coach Mark Faulx, a Knoch graduate. “We felt like, if we could avoid turnovers, we could stay with them.

“Our philosophy is to keep things slow and strong. Be strong with the ball and take care of it. But at times we over-dribbled, made bad passes and it got away from us.”

A Vince Morreale layup late in the third quarter gave the Trojans their biggest lead at 68-37. They led 44-23 at halftime.

Valley outscored North Catholic 21-9 in the fourth quarter to cut the final margin to 17 points.

“Finish the game with honor. Don't quit,” Faulx said. “At least that's the way we went out. We kept fighting.”

DeGregorio didn't feel the same way about his team in the second half.

“I don't think we played well in the second half ... certainly not like the first,” he said. “We got lazy on defense, lost some intensity. We didn't move our feet and committed a lot of fouls.

“We had a big lead and ... They're kids. But still, we have to put together a full game if we want to keep on playing. We stopped getting the ball inside to our big guy (Paschall) in the second half. That hurt us.”

Paschall had five rebounds and four steals to go with his 23 points. Isaac DeGregorio, despite playing in foul trouble much of the game, tallied 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Ryan Feczko had 10 points and three assists.

“Our guards weren't finding me in the second half like they did in the first,”Paschall admitted.

Nyjewel Carter paced Valley with 15 points and six rebounds. Deonte Ross had 13 points and five boards. Elijah Murray had 10 rebounds before fouling out with 2:46 left in the third quarter.

Four Vikings fouled out of the contest.

“I'll offer a 'no comment' on the officiating. That's all I have to say about it,” Faulx said.

VALLEY 60

Nyjewel Carter 6-13 2-2 15, Deonte Ross 5-11 3-4 13, Adison Johnson 2-6 2-2 6, Elijah Murray 3-5 1-4 7, David Primus 3-11 3-4 10, Eddie Hyatt 0-4 1-2 1, Jalil Johnson 1-1 1-2 3, Roman Flenory 2-3 0-0 5, Ben Aftanas 0-0 0-1 0. Totals: 22-54 13-21 60.

NORTH CATHOLIC 77

Nick Koscinski 3-4 1-2 9, Ryan Feczko 2-10 5-7 10, Jackson Paschall 11-16 1-3 23, Zack Rocco 3-3 1-3 7, Isaac DeGregorio 4-8 6-8 15, Isaiah Jackson 3-8 0-0 6, Anthony Serventi 0-2 0-2 0, Hans Rottmann 1-5 3-6 5, Jake Tomer 0-0 0-0 0, Vince Morreale 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 27-57 17-31 77.

Valley 8 15 16 21 — 60

North Catholic23 21 24 9 — 77

3-point goals: Carter, Primus, Flenory; Koscinski 2, Feczko, DeGregorio, Jackson 2

Thursday: North Catholic vs. Deer Lakes, WPIAL 3A quarterfinals, site and time TBA

Shenango 56, Summit Academy 51 — The Knights lost for the seventh time in eight games, ending their season in this Class 2A game at Fox Chapel.

Summit Academy (10-10) trailed by 18 early in the third quarter before pulling with 54-50 on a Jaleel Christian layup with 1:11 to play.

Colin McQuistion sank two free throws for Shenango (11-12) with 26 seconds left as the Wildcats held on for the win. Summit sank just seven of 26 shots in the first half.

“We dug ourselves a hole, but fought back,” Knights coach William Sharpe said. “These kids worked hard all year.

“I'm a first-year coach, they were first-year players. This was a learning experience for all of us.”

Takoma Askew led Summit with 23 points, sinking seven treys. He hit five of them in the second half.

“Takoma got hot and we got back in the game,” Sharpe said.

Christian contributed 12 points and eight assists, Tavon Johnson 12 rebounds for the Knights.

“We got into the section lead midway through the season and everybody started coming after us, bringing their 'A' games,” Sharpe said. “Our kids weren't ready for that.”

Ryan Perretti led four Shenango players in double digits, scoring 18 points. Reis Watkins had 13 points and nine rebounds, McQuiston 12 points, six assists and five rebounds, Gavin Pagley 10 points, five assists and four steals.

SHENANGO 56

Case Butchelle 0-3 0-0 0, Reis Watkins 5-8 3-4 13, Gavin Pagley 4-7 0-0 10, Ryan Perretti 8-17 0-0 18, Colin McQuiston 4-13 4-6 12, Ryan Lenhart 1-2 0-0 3. Totals: 22-50 7-10 56.

SUMMIT ACADEMY 51

Jaleel Christian 4-14 4-7 12, DeShawn Stevens 0-5 1-2 1, Takoma Askew 8-18 0-0 23, Tavon Johnson 3-7 0-1 6, Jason Ortiz 4-4 1-2 9, Andrai Russell 0-2 0-0 0, Del Patterson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-50 6-12 51.

Shenango 17 16 11 12 — 56

Summit Acad.6 11 15 19 — 51

3-point goals: Pagley 2, Perretti 2, Lenhart; Askew 7