RIMERSBURG — The season was starting to slip away from Union in Saturday's District 9 Class A quarterfinals before the Damsels were able to keep their footing.

Union was staring at an 11-point deficit midway through the third quarter against Port Allegany, but a 27-2 run — thanks to a smothering full-court press — reversed the tide and sent the squad to a 47-37 triumph.

The win sends Union (21-3) to a semifinal round matchup with Elk County Catholic at 7 pm. Tuesday at Brookville as well as locks up a PIAA playoff berth.

“We wanted to put more pressure on (Kyley) Mickle,” said Union coach Josh Meeker. “In the last game (ironically, a 47-37 win against Cameron County), she scored 25 points.

“If there's an MVP of this game, it was Daneka Stuart. She was on her the rest of the game.

“That changed the flow of the game. (Port Allegany) has a good team, but the press helped a lot. I tell people we're like the Steelers. We win, but it's not always pretty,” Meeker added.

After Union held a 6-2 lead first four minutes into the game — all six from Tina Lipps — the Gators (13-11) went on a 20-6 run, which started and closed on identical 8-0 spurts, to take a 22-12 lead with 2:53 left before halftime.

Port Allegany enjoyed its biggest advantage at 31-20 with 6:01 left in the third quarter.

Union had a chance to pare down the deficit, but Mariah Winchester and Stuart each missed two free throws, the latter with 4:54 left in the frame.

At that point, Union connected on just five of its 16 free-throw attempts.

“We're usually a good free-throw shooting team,” Meeker explained. “Mariah, Tina and Ashley MacKinlay are our top three shooters.”

From that point, however, the game completely turned into Union's favor.

“We knew the press would be coming,” said Gators coach Kristina Francis, “We prepared for it ... That's one of our weaknesses, handling the pressure.”

Union scored 20 consecutive points to take control.

Lipps' putback with two second left closed out the third quarter, then Winchester and Sierra Smith drained consecutive 3-pointers to give Union a 35-33 lead, one it never surrendered.

“It's like the fans were sitting on their hands, then I think (the 3-pointers) got everyone pumped up,” Meeker said. “The whole game it seemed the hoop was a thimble and now it looked like the ocean.”

Over the final 11 minutes, Union dropped in 11 of 14 free throws, which helped to build upon the lead.

The Gators' Renee Edgell and Taylor fouled out of the game in the fourth quarter.

“We had a set game plan by using our big players,” said Francis, “but then they got into foul trouble.

Lipps led Union with 18 points while Winchester finished with 14 points and Smith added 13 — including four 3-pointers while the Gators received 11 from Mickle.

“I would remind them of the big games we played this year,” said Meeker. “We beat Clarion-Limestone in two overtimes (70-66 on Jan. 19) and both games against Keystone (65-58 on Dec. 23 and 50-47 on Feb. 5).

“We had girls hit big shots and I said ‘You're the same girls that did it then and you can do it today.'”

PORT ALLEGANY 37Jordan Edgell 1 4-8 6, Cora Bova 3 0-0 6, Kyley Mickle 3 4-4 11, Renee Edgell 3 0-0 7, Rachel Taylor 2 1-2 5, Bryanna Evens 0 0-0 0, Ashley Woodruff 0 0-0 0, Lindsay Delacour 1 0-2 2, Fernanda Spallanzani 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 13 9-16 37.

UNION 47Delani Priester 0 0-2 0, Mariah Winchester 2 9-14 14, Ashley MacKinlay 0 2-4 2, Sierra Smith 4 1-2 13, Tina Lipps 7 4-6 18, Sydney Varner 0 0-0 0, Daneka Stuart 0 0-2 0, Danara Hawk 0 0-0 0, Kassie McGarrity 0 0-0 0, Mackenzie Divins 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 13 16-30 47.

Port Allegany 10 16 7 4—37Team 9 8 12 18—473-point goals: Port Allegany 2 (Mickle, R. Edgell); Union 5 (Smith 4, Winchester).

Tuesday: D9 Class A semifinals-Union vs. Elk County Catholic, 7 p.m., at Brookville