HERSHEY — The ebb and flow of Saturday's PIAA Class A girls basketball title game turned into a tidal wave.

And Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic rode it to a state championship.

The Trojanettes trailed 9-8 after one quarter, but outscored Our Lady of Lourdes Regional by 24 points the rest of the way in posting a 56-33 victory at the Giant Center.

“This is my last high school game,” said Trojanette senior guard Abby Goetz. “To have gold around my neck, it's the best feeling in the world.”

It is North Catholic's first state title since 1995 and the Trojanettes' initial crown since dropping down to Class A and relocating to Cranberry Township in 2014.

At the center of North Catholic's ability to pull away was a dominating effort on the boards. After getting out-rebounded 10-7 in the first period, the Trojanettes grabbed 39 rebounds over the last 24 minutes to just 13 for the Red Raiders.

Junior forward Sam Breen pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds to go with 27 points and nine assists.

“We were the bigger team,” said North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann, “but we told the girls after the first quarter that we can't run in transition without the ball. I thought Dani (Short, 11 rebounds) and Kylie (Huffman, 10) did a great job as well as Sam in getting rebounds.”

“We kept telling our girls to box out the shooter,” said Raider coach Michael Klembara. “They (Trojanettes) were getting second and third-chance opportunities because the shooter was getting the rebounds.”

Klembara was encouraged by the low-scoring first period.

“To win, I thought we needed to hold them to less than 10 points per quarter,” he added. “So in the first quarter, we were fine. But we just couldn't match up with them. They had a good scheme.”

The Trojanettes (28-3) received five points in the final 25 seconds of the first half — a pair of free throws from Breen, followed by a 3-pointer from Huffman — to earn a 25-18 halftime lead.

“We had the height on them and we knew that coming in,” Goetz said. “Our plan was to get inside and once we started to do that, it was a key part of the game.”

But it was in the third quarter when the Raiders (23-7) were most frustrated. Defensively, they were at the mercy of Breen, who scored 10 points in the period to aid North Catholic's 16-5 run.

Lourdes Regional had allowed 50 or more points just twice this season, giving up an average of just 29.7 points per contest before running into North Catholic. The Raiders employed a 2-3 zone defense in an attempt to impede the Trojanettes.

“We practiced against the 2-3 all week and that helped,” Breen said. “We were able to get our seals and finish. And we drew fouls and got to the line.”

Breen was 9-of-12 from the charity stripe.

“She's legit,” said Klembara of Breen. “She can do an awful lot of things very well.”

Breen is used to putting up impressive numbers, but this batch came on the biggest of stages.

“She stepped up,” said Rottmann. “I told her early in the game, 'They can't handle you inside'. Her teammates were very unselfish in getting her the ball and I thought Sam found them for some easy baskets, too.”

The Trojanettes' ownership of the boards negated the fact that they did not shoot particularly well from the floor (21-of-54). But Lourdes Regional was reduced to mainly one-and-done possessions. Their 5-of-22 performance from the field in the second half closed the door on the Raiders' comeback attempt.

Junior guard Carmella Bickel led Lourdes Regional with 11 points.

“Sure, we took a lot of shots today that we normally make,” said Klembara, “but our girls performed admirably.”

North Catholic fell short of a WPIAL title, losing to Vincentian Academy in the championship game last month.

“We didn't say the words 'state championship' to the girls this week,” said Rottmann. “We just wanted them to prepare for another game, but we had the special chemistry to win it.”

CW NORTH CATHOLIC 56

Ashley Robbins 2 0-0 4, Amanda Bucklew 1 0-0 2, Abby Goetz 2 0-0 5, Kylie Huffman 4 0-1 10, Dani Short 3 2-4 8, Sam Breen 9 9-12 27, Bella Scioscia 0 0-0 0, Lauren Gaertner 0 0-0 0, Lillia Smyers 0 0-0 0, Elyssa Paras 0 0-0 0, Emily Gregor 0 0-0 0, Lizzy Goetz 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 11-17 56.

LOURDES REGIONAL 33

Kristen Komara 4 0-0 9, Kendall Krebs 1 0-0 2, Siera Coleman 1 0-0 2, Carmella Bickel 4 1-2 11, Selma Albert 1 0-0 3, Madison Munson 0 1-2 1, Francis Czyponis 1 3-6 5, Jessica Milewski 0 0-0 0, Kelsey Conner 0 0-0 0, Mary Komara 0 0-0 0, Cherisse Kulick 0 0-0 0, Peyton Baskin 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 5-10 33.

CW North Cath. 8 17 16 15 — 56

Lourdes Reg.9 9 5 10 — 33

3-point goals: CW North Catholic 3 (Huffman 2, A. Goetz); Lourdes Regional 4 (Bickel 2, Albert, K. Komara).