HEMPFIELD TWP — There were eardrum-piercing screams. There were hugs and smiles. There was rampant jubilation.

And, yes, there was Hershey’s chocolate.

The Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic girls basketball team had reason to celebrate after rallying from a big first-half deficit Tuesday night against Bishop Guilfoyle for a 49-43 win in the PIAA Class A semifinals at Hempfield High School.

The Trojanettes will face District 4 runner-up Lourdes Regional (23-6) at noon Saturday in the Class A state title game at the GIANT Center in Hershey.

“I’m just really excited,” said North Catholic junior forward Sam Breen, who led all scorers with 20 points. “It was just a great team effort. I don’t think we’re going to stop smiling for a couple of days. We’re all just really excited. None of us have had the opportunity yet (to play for a state title). It’s a big deal.”

North Catholic was last in the Class A state title game in 2011-12, losing to Steelton-Highspire, 66-59.

Early, it looked like the Trojanettes would miss out again on a trip to the championship game.

North Catholic (27-3) fell behind 9-2 in the first four minutes of the game and trailed 21-10 with two minutes left in the half.

Bishop Guilfoyle (22-7) had the ball, the momentum and was setting up to run time off the clock for a final shot at the end of the half, but Aliyah Labriola was called for a moving screen, giving possession back to North Catholic with a little more than a minute on the clock.

The Trojanettes took advantage of that turn of events and closed the half on a 7-0 run. Kylie Huffman, who played the last two years at California High School before joining North Catholic when her family moved to the area, scored five points in that flurry.

“At first I was really off with my shot,” said Huffman, who missed her first four attempts from the field. “I wanted to contribute in this game. But I was hitting in pre-game and felt confident. So I kept shooting.

“This was so big for us,” Huffman added, “especially after losing in the WPIAL final (to Vincentian Academy). This was our goal to get to the state title game and hopefully win it. I just couldn’t be more happy and excited for our team.”

North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann admitted she was very worried with how her team came out against Bishop Guilfoyle, who knocked off the Trojanettes’ arch nemesis, Vincentian, last week in the second round of the state playoffs.

Vincentian beat North Catholic in the WPIAL title game this season.

“I was gravely concerned,” Rottmann said, laughing. “We just couldn’t get it going.”

Yet her team trailed by just four at the half, 21-17.

“We seemed to go totally blank in that first quarter,” Rottmann said. “We talked at halftime and I told them, ‘You’re not doing anything you’re supposed to be doing, but we’re only down by four and you’re playing like garbage and I say that with love.’ They responded.”

The run continued at the start of the second half. Ashley Robbin hit a 3-pointer to start the half and Breen scored on a layup a bit later to give the Trojanettes the lead for good at 24-23 with 5:52 on the third-quarter clock.

North Catholic led by as many as 10 in the fourth quarter before Bishop Guilfoyle made a run.

The Marauders trailed 45-43 late and had possession, but Darcy Lee’s 3-point attempt rimmed out and the Trojanettes salted the game away at the line to punch their ticket to Hershey.

“There was nobody in front of her when she took that shot,” said Bishop Guilfoyle coach Mark Moschella. “I said to these guys that I’m proud of them because it certainly wasn’t from a lack of effort. It was just because some of the shots at the end didn’t go in and we couldn’t overcome the foul trouble.”

The Marauders were just 17-of-58 shooting in the game and had three starters in foul trouble early.

The biggest foul was the illegal screen near the end of the first half.

“It was huge. I mean, it was just huge,” Moschella said. “I mean, it probably could have been something that was let go, but you can’t control those things. We just needed to do some better things in the third and fourth quarters.”

North Catholic won’t take long to bask in this victory.

The Trojanettes will be right back at it today to get prepared for Lourdes Regional.

“We’re going hard practice (today) and a hard practice Thursday and Friday,” Breen said. “We’ll be ready. We will be ready.”

CWNC 49

Ashley Robbins 3-4 0-1 8, Abby Goetz 1-3 3-4 5, Kylie Huffman 3-7 0-0 8, Dani Short 1-2 4-6 6, Sam Breen 8-19 4-4 20, Amanda Bucklew 1-4 0-0 2. Totals: 17-39 11-15 49.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE 43

Ryley Lewis 4-8 2-2 12, Darcy Lee 0-8 1-2 1, Anna Audley 3-11 1-2 7, Lili Benzel 4-13 0-0 9, Karis Taddei 2-6 1-2 5, Macy Adams 0-2 0-0 0, Harlem Jennings 3-7 0-0 7, Kierra Miller 1-2 0-0 2, Aliyah Labriola 0-0 0-0 0, Beth Yahner 0-1 0-0 0, Marina Scipioni 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 17-58 5-8 43.

CWNC 7 10 19 13 — 49

Bishop Guilfoyle11 10 8 14 — 43

3-point goals: CWNC 4 (Robbins 2, Huffman 2); Bishop Guilfoyle 4 (Lewis 2, Benzel, Jennings

Saturday: Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic vs. Lourdes Regional, PIAA Class A Championship game at Hershey, noon.