Two statistics from yesterday's WPIAL Class AAAA quarterfinal against Norwin illustrate how much talent the Oakland Catholic girls' basketball team has at its disposal:

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The Eagles' two Division I recruits -- Amanda Sedlack (Akron) and Erica Prosser (Lehigh) -- were held scoreless in the first half and Oakland Catholic still had an 18-point lead at halftime.

Oakland Catholic sophomore guard Colleen Kiss, who made six 3-pointers and scored 27 points in the first half, was held scoreless in the second half and the Eagles won by 15 points.

With a multi-pronged effort on offense and a suffocating half-court trapping defense that forced 26 turnovers, Oakland Catholic (20-6) coasted to a 71-56 win at Plum.

Oakland Catholic advanced to the semifinals for the ninth consecutive season. It will play Bethel Park (23-3) Wednesday at a time and site to be determined.

If Oakland Catholic comes out of the gate the way it did against Norwin (19-7), it will be hard for any team to knock off the two-time defending champion.

In the first 4 minutes, 4 seconds, the Eagles made six 3-pointers -- four by Kiss and one each by Vickery Lauro and Blair Cotton -- to take a 20-4 advantage.

"It was 17-2 and they had missed two shots, just think about that," Norwin coach Bob Schrader said. "This ages me, but [Colleen Kiss] looked like Pete Maravich or Calvin Murphy out there at the beginning of the game. Basically, she just hit everything."

Norwin, meanwhile, was not just having trouble shooting the ball, but wasn't getting any decent looks at the basket as Oakland Catholic's pressure forced nine turnovers in the first six minutes.

"By scoring, it enabled us to get into our press," Oakland Catholic coach Rich Irr said. "Getting ahead early is something you want to do in every game. By starting out like that on offense, it allowed us to get settled on defense."

Norwin had difficulty getting any sort of continuity as the Knights fell behind, 38-20, at halftime.

Kayla Hilko was a bright spot for Norwin in the first half, scoring eight points on her way to a team-high 18. But that effort could not counter Kiss' in the first half and what Prosser did in the second half.

The six 3-pointers Kiss made were the second-most in a WPIAL Class AAAA playoff game.

Prosser, although held without any points in the first two quarters, scored all of her 13 points in the first 8:28 of the third quarter to put the Knights away.

"If they get turnovers, they are very tough to beat," Schrader said. "They came right at us from the very beginning and we never were able to do what we wanted because of that defense. That was the difference."