It might be the oldest and most overused cliche in sports, but that hasn't stopped New Castle girls' basketball coach LuAnn Grybowski from repeating it to her team every day this season.

"I always tell them it is simple," Grybowski said. "Offense wins headlines and accolades, but defense wins games and championships.

"Our stated goal is to hold our opponent to under 40 points because I believe, if we do that, we'll win every game."

Last night, the Hurricanes put her preaching into practice as they rode a stingy defense to a 37-34 win over Chartiers Valley in a WPIAL Class AAAA semifinal at Canon-McMillan.

The Hurricanes (23-4) advanced to the championship for the first time and will face Oakland Catholic (23-4) Saturday at 6 p.m. at Palumbo Center.

It will be the Eagles' sixth consecutive trip to the final.

Given that, and the fact that the Eagles entered the tournament as the top seed while New Castle was seeded 10th, it is clear the Hurricanes will be a huge underdog.

But Grybowski said that won't matter,

"I'll tell my girls what I've told them all along," Grybowski said. "[Oakland Catholic] puts their pants on one leg at a time just like us.

"They are obviously a great team, and we have a lot of work to do in order to beat them. But we're the 10th seed in this thing, so we've been the underdog in every game and look how far we've made it."

Against Chartiers Valley, New Castle led, 10-8, at the end of the first quarter.

But it appeared to be in great shape to make a run because Colts star Lauren Revesz picked up two early fouls and remained on the bench most of the second quarter.

But the Colts trailed only 17-14 at the half.

She returned and immediately made her presence felt, scoring the Colts' first eight points of the second half. They trailed by only 27-26 at the end of the third quarter.

"Sitting out may have actually helped me because I was rested and finally made some shots," Revesz said.

"But we just didn't execute very ewll when we needed to."

Chartiers Valley forced ties at 29-29, 31-31 and 33-33, but never took the lead.

New Castle's Jaleesa Sams made a jumper to give the Hurricanes a 35-33 lead with 1:43 to play. Revesz then hit one of two free throws to cut the Hurricanes' lead to one.

The Hurricanes turned the ball over with a backcourt violation, but Chartiers Valley failed to cash in and turned it right back over on a traveling call.

Maria Joseph was fouled and hit two free throws with 11 seconds left to provide the final margin.

Chartiers Valley failed to get another shot off, and the Hurricanes held on fto win.