CANONSBURG — Sam Breen and Maria Cassamassa are like peas and carrots.

They play like Shaq and Kobe.

Or Pippen and Jordan.

The Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic duo was certainly dynamic in the second round of the PIAA Class A girls basketball playoffs, combining for all but five of their team's points in a 36-26 win over California at Canon-McMillan High School Wednesday night.

“Sam did an awesome job. She was getting hit under there and taking it,” Cassamassa said, smiling. “I wouldn't have been able to do that. With Sam, it's real easy to communicate with her because she's so open and she's such a great player. She really opens up so many things for other people.”

Cassamassa isn't used to having a teammate quite like Breen.

In fact, she isn't used to having a teammate, period.

“It's exciting for me because I'm a freshman and never did anything like this before,” Cassamassa said. “I was home-schooled up to this point and never played for a school team. I never played travel ball. So this is all very new to me.”

Cassamassa has adapted well — and quickly. The 5-foot-9 forward took advantage of California packing its defense in to stop Breen, hitting for 16 points to lead all scorers.

Breen, a 6-2 sophomore forward, added 15 points.

None of Breen's points came easily as she was constantly hounded in the paint by Cal's two 6-footers, Lyndsey Huhn and Kylie Huffman.

“Sam did what Sam does. She was a horse in there,” said North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann. “She earned every point she got tonight.”

Both teams found their points hard-earned, especially in the first half.

Breen had eight points at the half as defense ruled the first two quarters. North Catholic headed into halftime with a 13-12 lead.

It was the kind of game California (25-3) craves — physical and low-scoring.

“Like I told them at halftime, 'I don't think defense is a problem,'” Rottmann said, laughing. “We just needed to score some points.”

The Trojanettes came out in the second half determined to do that.

“Once we started scoring and finding the open person,” Breen said, 'we were fine.”

To accomplish that, Rottmann and her staff tweaked their offensive strategy.

“We knew if we got up by a little bit, they'd have to come out and couldn't pack it in,” Rottmann said. “(California) did a great job defensively. So at halftime we made a couple of adjustments. Instead of just sitting Sam in the block, we tried to get her moving a little bit and get her some open looks.”

North Catholic (22-6) asserted itself early in the fourth quarter, turning a three-point lead into an eight-point advantage three minutes later.

The lead swelled to 10 with a little more than three minutes remaining and the Trojanettes put the game away with their defense.

“We played well enough to win on defense,” said California coach Chris Minerd. “We just couldn't get the offense going. North Catholic did a good job on defense. They were a little more physical than us tonight.”

California was just 11-of-47 shooting from the floor.

Huhn led Cal with nine points.

For North Catholic, the win was a measure of revenge.

California ended the Trojanettes' season last year with a 45-43 win in the WPIAL quarterfinals.

“Last year was really rough,” Breen said. “This year we came in with a lot of confidence, not cocky overconfidence, but confidence that we could beat them and put last year behind us.”

Now North Catholic will play Blairsville, which knocked off Quigley Catholic, in the quarterfinals Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

CALIFORNIA 26

Lyndsey Huhn 4-14 1-3 9, Jenna Miller 3-10 0-0 7, Bailey Vig 2-9 0-1 5, Kylie Huffman 2-8 0-0 5, Katharina Pankratz 0-2 0-0 0, Marissa Bitoni 0-4 0-0 0, Brooke Clements 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 11-47 1-4 26.

CW NORTH CATHOLIC 36

Mia Palmer 0-0 0-1 0, Abby Goetz 2-7 0-1 5, Evelyn Brazil 0-4 0-0 0, Mary Cassamassa 6-10 2-5 16, Sam Breen 5-15 4-6 15, Kiki Palmer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 13-36 6-13 36.

California 7 5 7 7 — 26

North Catholic10 3 9 14 — 36

3-point goals: California 3 (Miller, Vig, Huffman); CWNC 4 (Goetz, Cassamassa 2, Breen)

Saturday: CWNC vs. Blairsville, PIAA Class A quarterfinals at a site and time TBD