VANDERGRIFT — The 3-pointers were falling for the Freeport girls basketball team against North Catholic.

Tick, tick, tick.

The Yellowjackets had a 14-3 lead. A 26-16 advantage. A 36-28 cushion.

Tick, tick, tick.

The game plan was going well for Freeport.

North Catholic, though, wasn't panicking. The Trojanettes had been here before. Done that. Undaunted by deficits big and small.

Tick, tick, tick.

North Catholic new its offense was a time bomb ready to detonate at any moment.

Tick, tick, tick.

Then boom.

The Trojanettes overcame that eight-point hole midway through the third quarter with a prodigious 30-4 run on the way to a 58-43 victory over rival Freeport in the first round of the PIAA Class 4A playoffs Saturday afternoon at Kiski Area High School.

“They're ultra competitive; They want to win,” said North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann. “I think early on in their competitiveness, they try to do too much. It's just too much. Then they settle down, they're patient.”

And good things happen.

The bomb detonates.

Tess Myers and Kylee Lewandowski were the fuse in the third quarter. Both scored nine points in the frame and turned a 36-28 deficit into a 46-40 lead by the start of the fourth.

By then, the Trojanettes were well on their way to a hard-fought, first-round win.

“Exactly, a feeding frenzy,” Rottmann said. “We have a lot of kids with a lot of ability and it's hard to match up and try to stop one kid and then they feed off each other.

“We just started out, obviously, very slow,” Rottmann added. “We were just struggling. I said at halftime, we can't shoot any worse.”

Meanwhile Freeport could hardly shoot any better.

Grace Soilis hit all three of her 3-point attempts in the first four-plus minutes as the Yellowjackets jumped out to that 14-3 lead.

A key sequence, though, came at the end of the half. Freeport had a nine-point lead and possession with less than 30 seconds on the clock, but forced up a 3-pointer.

North Catholic guard Emma Pospisil hit a 3 on the other end with three seconds on the clock and Freeport went into the half with only a six-point lead.

North Catholic (25-1) stormed back at the start of the third to tie the game at 28, but a quick 8-0 run by the Yellowjackets put the Trojanettes in a hole again.

Then, boom.

“Second half we just settled in a little bit,” Rottmann said.

Myers led the way with 22 points and Lewandowski added 18 for North Catholic, which will take on Central Valley in the second round of the state playoffs at 6 p.m. Wednesday at North Hills.

That game is a rematch of last year's WPIAL title game.

Samantha Clark led Freeport (17-8) with 13 points and her twin sister, Maddie Clark, added 10.

Freeport coach Fred Soilis said he had no regrets.

“We did what I thought we could come out and do,” the coach said. “They're a great team with great athletes, but I don't think they expected us to come out and punch them in the face and we did that.

“We did everything we could,” he added. “Problem was their shots fell in the second half and ours didn't.”

Freeport had 16 days to prepare for this game and a third chance at toppling a foe that had beaten its seniors eight straight times.

“I'm proud of the effort our kids put forth and I told them that,” Soilis said. “They have nothing to hang their heads about. They went toe-to-toe. I really felt we had a chance and the belief we could beat them.”

Now Soilis has to say goodbye to a senior group that meant so much to the program.

Freeport went 62-33 the last four seasons, including 35-13 in the last two.

“(Friday night) we watched (Kobe Bryant's movie) Dear Basketball,” Soilis said. “It's the last thing we did as a team. Kobe is going through his thing and at one point he says to basketball he has to give you up. I told them selfishly, I'm not ready to give you up. I'm not ready to let you go. Unfortunately, it comes to that, but I'm proud of that team.”

FREEPORT 43

Samantha Clark 4-9 2-2 13, Maddie Clark 4-16 1-2 10, Grace Soilis 3-6 0-0 9, Sidney Shemanski 2-5 4-4 8, Melaina DeZort 1-7 0-0 3, Harley Holloway 0-2 0-0 0, Louisa Fennell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-43 7-8 43.

NORTH CATHOLIC 58

Emma Pospisil 2-5 0-0 5, Cassie Foster 0-3 2-2 2, Kylee Lewandowski 7-13 0-0 18, Tess Myers 8-23 4-4 22, Belle O'Hara 0-0 0-0 0, Lucy Waskiewicz 2-2 0-0 5, Branygan Bianchin 2-3 0-0 5, Dacia Lewandowski 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-53 7-10 58.

Freeport 14 14 12 3 — 43

North Catholic7 15 24 12 — 58

3-point goals: Freeport 8 (S. Clark 3, M. Clark, Soilis 3, DeZort); North Catholic 9 (Pospisil, K. Lewandowski 4, Myers 2, Waskiewicz, Bianchin)

Wednesday: North Catholic vs. Central Valley at North Hills, 6 p.m.