CRANBERRY TWP — North Catholic dealt with tests early in its WPIAL Class 4A opening-round playoff meeting with visiting Montour Monday night. The Trojans were conditioned for such an instance — in more ways than one.

Stamina, hardened resolve, and an unwavering half-court press afforded North a 53-41 boys basketball win after they missed each of their first 18 tries from beyond the arc and were stymied under the basket at first.

“It’s a playoff game,” Trojans coach Jim Rocco said. “It happens. Kids get a little bit tight, but we made shots when we needed to make shots ... Defensively, we were just awesome, giving up 41 points to a talented team.”

The Spartans’ 6-9 sophomore, Ama Tening Sow, was stationed down low on defense for the entirety of the contest, stuffing three Trojan shots before four minutes had gone by. Six points by senior Andrew Maddalon in the first frame’s final two minutes gave North a 12-8 lead going into the second.

Still, something needed to be drawn up to combat the slender big man’s length in the paint.

“The great thing that we have at North Catholic is really good basketball minds on our team,” Rocco said. “We rely on our players. Also, we rely on our bench. The bench was very instrumental in helping us make changes.”

Junior girls hoops players Alayna Rocco and Ava Walker also gave their input on alterations that could benefit the Trojans.

“He was sitting in the paint a little bit on us, so we talked about sealing him on the inside to kind of open up our lane on our drives,” Maddalon said.

The level of prior competition this go-round played a big part in the ease of ironing things out, too. North (17-6) played schools such as the Bronx’s Monsignor Scanlan and in-state Archbishop Wood

“It’s sort of game IQ that we’ve established over time, which I think we benefit from,” Coach Rocco said. “We’ve been there, done that against a lot of talented teams. I think it helps us down the stretch.”

That’s where intensity on defense came in, too. Rocco’s group has deployed a half-court press the whole season. A pair of successive steals and lay-ups on the baseline about three minutes into the second quarter gave North a permanent hold on the lead.

“We’re conditioned,” Maddalon said. “Every day in practice, we’re running, we’re scrimmaging. Every kid at practice is a part of this team — whether it’s the last guy on the bench on JV or the first guy on the bench on varsity. Every kid ... is running, giving it their all at practice, and it translates to the game.”

Another Montour (9-14) giveaway in the third period led to the Trojans’ first three — by bench player Nick Larson with 2:27 to go before the fourth.

“I thought that was the difference in the game,” Montour coach Bill Minear said. “Too many live-ball turnovers they got lay-ups out of. If it goes out of bounds, we have time to play five-on-five then. We were much better off playing five-on-five. When they got fast-break opportunities off the press, I thought that hurt us.”

“We knew we were struggling behind the arc,” Maddalon said. “The first timeout, we said, ‘Keep shooting, keep shooting, the shots are going to fall.’ So we just wanted to pick it up on the defensive end to try to create some more points in transition.

“The more pressure we added defensively kind of created some flow offensively for us.”

A last-second layup by Tening Sow would have cut the Spartans’ halftime deficit to five points, but it was waved off by an official. The visitors wouldn’t get within less than six in the last 16 minutes.

“The breaks usually go a good team’s way,” Minear said. “The last two years, we’ve had the home court advantage — and it is an advantage. It just is. The familiarity of a team.”

Maddlon had a game-high 22 poitns. He reiterated what sort of foundation the team’s schedule provided. North has won 13 of 14 and seven in a row.

“I think we played one of the toughest schedules in the WPIAL, hands-down,” Maddalon said. “We went to Philadelphia and played, we had Devon Prep come here, we played a team from Florida. I think that’s just going to prepare us down the stretch.

“We’re on a hot streak. We’re rolling.”

Max Rottman added 10 points in the win. The Trojans will play Uniontown in the tournament quarterfinals. The time and location is to be determined.

MONTOUR 41

Ama Tening Sow 8 5-9 21, Jack Wolfe 2 3-6 7, Je’Nari Kelley 2 0-0 5, Jaxon Camp 2 0-0 5, Ricardo Johnson-McClain 1 1-2 3. Totals: 15 9-17 41.

NORTH CATHOLIC 53

Andrew Maddalon 7 7-7 22, Max Rottmann 5 0-0 10, Max Hurray 1 6-6 8, Nick Larson 2 1-2 6, Matt Elery 2 0-0 5, Owen Maddon 1 0-1 2. Totals: 18 14-16 53.

Montour 8 13 12 8 — 41

North Catholic 12 16 13 12 — 53

3-point goals: North Catholic 3 (Maddalon, Larson, Ellery); Montour 2 (Kelley, Camp)