The Washington-North Catholic game started 20 minutes late last night because North Catholic's team bus got caught in traffic. Then North Catholic's Henry Pwono followed the same timing pattern.

Pwono's game was also a late arrival. But it came around just in time, and Pwono helped the Trojans navigate their way to a 58-54 overtime victory against Washington in a PIAA Class AA semifinal at Hempfield.

The win puts North Catholic (28-2) into the title game for the first time in school history. North Catholic will play Saturday afternoon at Penn State against Imhotep Charter, which defeated Hughesville, 53-46, in the other semifinal.

It was the eighth postseason win for North Catholic, but this was unlike any others. North Catholic trailed in the fourth quarter, 40-30, with a little more than five minutes left.

Then Pwono, a 6-foot-5 senior, scored 11 points in the final 5:07 of regulation. His 8-foot basket with 1:03 left tied the score, 46-46, and sent it into overtime. Pwono also scored a basket in overtime to put North Catholic ahead for good, 51-50, with 2:11 left.

Before Pwono came alive, he had missed 7 of 10 shots. He finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

"I was kind of willing myself to get the ball to the hoop, because I knew we were down," Pwono said. "It was important to the team and important to myself that we to make it to the state championship. I wanted to win this for the team."

In the fourth quarter, North Catholic continually ran a high-low offensive set to get Pwono the ball.

"I thought any of our set plays weren't working because Washington did such a good job with weakside help," North Catholic coach Dave Long said. "So I just said, 'Let's get away from the frills and just go for the neck.' "

In other words, pound the ball into Pwono, whose scoring effort was much needed because leading scorer Jesse Long was bothered by foul trouble and fouled out with 2:21 left in regulation. Long, who averages 15.9 points, was held to 10 points.

"When Jesse fouled out, I figured I'd kind of take responsibility," Pwono said.

North Catholic led at halftime, 24-20, but the Trojans were 0 for 9 from the field in the third quarter. After Pwono tied it, 46-46, Washington (25-4) was working for the last shot. Then North Catholic's Tyler Staniski poked away a pass, but Washington's Robert Anderson, who scored a game-high 22 points, came up with it. He drove to the basket, but was called for a charging foul with 10.7 seconds left.

North Catholic's Matt Long missed a 16-footer at the buzzer.

In the overtime, North Catholic had the ball and a one-point lead when Washington's Troy Wilson stole a pass and headed the other way. But he fell in the lane and North Catholic came up with the loose ball. Martin Long made two free throws with 22.2 seconds left and Washington's Nick Bryant missed a 3-pointer at the other end.

The loss ended the long career of Washington coach Ron Faust, who won more than 500 games in 28 seasons.

"There could be a lot worse ways to end a career than this," Faust said. "Just going this far is something, not only in your last year, but at any time."