INDIANA — Sam Breen heard the whispers.

She’s a great player.

But.

She can dominate a game.

But.

She can play inside or outside.

But.

Breen, a 6-foot-1 junior forward for the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic girls basketball team, dedicated herself in the offseason to erase that qualifier to her game.

And it has shown up in her play this season.

Breen scored 31 points as the Trojanettes rolled to a 61-36 win Wednesday over Keystone in the second round of the PIAA Class A playoffs at Indiana (Pa.) University’s Ed Fry Arena.

The knock on Breen in seasons’ past was her lack of quickness. That seems to be no longer an issue.

“She put a tremendous amount of time in,” said North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann. “She probably dropped 20 pounds from last year and it was a specific goal for her to get lighter and get quicker.

“She’s just a complete player.”

Breen’s smile is large as she talks about how hard she worked to improve her speed and footwork.

“It feels good,” Breen said. “I feel like it’s added a lot more to my game. I just thought it helped a lot with transition points and that helped a lot tonight.”

Against overmatched Keystone, the District 9 champs, Breen scored 10 points in the first quarter, had 16 at the half, despite spending a large chunk of the second quarter on the bench, and had 24 at the end of the third quarter.

She was 12-of-19 shooting from the field — including a 3-pointer — showed off her post skills and a nifty running one-handed jumper, and was 6 of 7 from the free throw line.

“I’ve been practicing those (one-handed floaters) a lot,” Breen said. “I had been struggling with those.”

She didn’t struggle against Keystone, although her team did coming out of the gate.

Keystone led 10-6 late in the first quarter, but North Catholic scored nine points in the final 37 seconds of the frame to take a 15-10 lead.

That advantage swelled to 30-14 by the half and to 20 early in the third quarter.

Rottman chalked the slow start up to good old fashioned nerves.

“I just think there’s always a little bit of nerves,” Rottman said. “We were getting good looks, we just missed some bunnies. Early jitters.”

Kylie Huffman hit a 35-footer to cap the first-quarter flurry and finished with 16 points.

The development of Huffman, a 6-2 junior forward, has given North Catholic a dangerous 1-2 punch inside and outside.

“She can shoot and we’ve been working all year on getting her inside, too,” Rottman said. “She had a nice little post move tonight. We’re going to look to do more of that.”

Point guard Ashley Robbins added 12 points and handled Keystone’s pressure well.

“She never comes off the floor,” Rottman said. “She had some nice drives tonight. Ashley was a huge contributor with her ball handling tonight.”

Amber Hess led Keystone with 11 points. Josselin Geer pitched in 10.

North Catholic will take on Bishop Carroll Saturday in the state quarterfinals.

Breen said after losing to Vincentian Academy in the WPIAL championship game, the Trojanettes have been focused on winning a state title.

“It was a very tough pill to swallow,” Breen said.

North Catholic won’t, however, get to a chance to avenge its district title game loss to Vincentian in the state playoffs. The Royals were upset in the first game at IUP Wednesday, 59-55, by Bishop Guilfoyle.

Breen fouled out in that WPIAL title game. That’s the next but in her game to conquer.

“Yes, especially after the WPIAL championship game,” Breen said. “I hadn’t fouled out the whole entire season, then I fouled out in the WPIAL championship game.”

“She still gives me a heart attack,” Rottman yelled from an adjacent room. “Reaching!”

KEYSTONE 36

MaKenzie Byerley 2-4 0-0 4, Kaci Weaver 0-6 0-0 0, Taylor Geer 3-12 0-0 8, Josselin Geer 4-15 0-3 10, Amber Hess 4-8 2-4 11, McKenzie Hovis 0-1 0-1 0, Claire Warner 0-0 0-0 0, Tessa Weaver 1-5 0-0 2, Jelly Seigworth 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-51 2-8 36.

CWNC 61

Ashley Robbins 4-6 3-4 12, Abby Goetz 0-6 0-0 0, Kylie Huffman 6-10 1-2 16, Dani Short 0-6 2-3 2, Sam Breen 12-19 6-7 31, Bella Sciosca 0-0 0-0 0, Amanda Bucklew 0-0 0-0 0, Lauren Guerther 0-0 0-0 0, Ellysa Paras 0-0 0-0 0, Lizzy Goetz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-47 12-16 61.

Keystone 10 4 15 7 — 36

CWNC15 15 16 15 — 61

3-point goals:

Saturday: CWNC vs. Bishop Carroll, site and time to be determined