WEXFORD — The ball was rolling off the rim and glancing off the glass.

Sam Breen was admittedly getting frustrated — but it was all personal.

“My teammates were finishing plays and our team was winning, so it was all good,” the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic junior center said. “I adjusted, tried shooting the ball higher off the glass ... It seemed like nothing was going in.”

The Trojanettes (24-3) cruised to a 72-44 PIAA Class A girls basketball victory over Cochranton Saturday at North Allegheny High School. And while Breen did miss eight lay-ups in the first quarter, she did wind up contributing to the win.

More than slightly.

She finished the day with 32 points, 20 rebounds, five steals and four assists.

“Ask her and she’ll tell you she played a horrible game,” CWNC coach Molly Rottmann predicted.

Breen wouldn’t go that far.

“But I didn’t play well. I don’t think I played well at all,” she said. “Twenty rebounds? It didn’t feel like it.”

Breen attempted 35 of the Trojanettes’ 65 shots in the game. The smaller Cochranton team could not keep CWNC from attacking inside and fellow Trojanette forwards Kylie Huffman and Dani Short were in and out of the lineup all day in foul trouble.

“Sam carried them on her back for a while. She’s good enough to do that,” Cochranton coach Gary Egli said. “We tried making her go around us instead of through us and that was working for a while. We forced her to take some shots from tough angles.

“But, ultimately, she wore us down.”

The Cardinals (17-9) hung close for a while. They trailed 18-13 at the end of the first quarter, then were outscored 17-6 in the second period.

“There was that WPIAL hangover a little bit, which might explain our slow start,” Rottmann said. “But I can’t blame the week layoff. Every team in the tournament was in the same boat that way.”

Egli said that “our team stayed with them early, but there’s a reason why they’re second-ranked in the state.

“We had some jitters today, too, no doubt about that.”

Cochranton turned the ball over 23 times in the contest.

And the Trojanettes enjoyed a needed bit of levity at halftime.

While shooting around just before the end of the intermission, a basketball got lodged on top of the CWNC backboard. The players were tossing balls up, trying to knock it down and succeeded — only to get another ball stuck up there.

“I wanted to be the one to get that one down because I took 15 shots at it and didn’t hit it,” Breen said, laughing. “I finally got it just before we had to go to the bench.

“It was a funny moment. We needed that. It put us back in perspective. We’re playing a game.”

Short wound up with 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Ashley Robbins had six assists, Amanda Bucklew nine points.

Alissa Dickson paced the Cardinals with 13 points, six rebounds and three steals. Lexi O’Donnell had 11 points, Lindsay Wagner 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.

The Trojanettes had a 30-14 rebounding advantage in the first half, 43-30 for the game.

“We rebounded better in the first half, I thought,” Rottmann said. “We may have lost our edge a little bit later in the game.”

COCHRANTON 44

Lexi O’Donnell 4-11 0-0 11, Julie McBryar 1-2 0-0 2, Alissa Dickson 4-9 4-4 13, Cassidee Egli 0-4 0-2 0, Kayla Freyermuth 0-0 0-0 0, Mackenzie Buchan 3-6 0-1 8, Rachel Hall 0-1 0-0 0, Lindsay Wagner 2-5 6-8 10, Mackenzie Freyermuth 0-0 0-0 0, Lindsee Kasbee 0-1 0-0 0, Sarah Mackel 0-0 0-0 0, Hannah Harvey 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 14-41 10-13 44.

CW NORTH CATHOLIC 72

Ashley Robbins 0-1 0-0 0, Bella Scioscia 0-0 1-2 1, Amanda Bucklew 2-5 5-6 9, Abby Goetz 1-2 3-4 5, Kylie Huffman 3-5 1-1 7, Lauren Gaertner 0-0 0-0 0, Lillia Smyers 0-1 1-2 1, Dani Short 5-12 1-3 11, Elyssa Paras 2-2 1-2 6, Sam Breen 13-35 6-7 32, Lizzy Goetz 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 26-65 19-27 72.

Cochranton 13 6 13 12 — 44

CW North Cath.18 17 15 22 — 72

3-point goals: O’Donnell 3, Dickson, Buchan 2; Paras

Wednesday: CW North Catholic vs. Keystone, 7:30 p.m., Indiana (Pa.) University