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Not only is Upper St. Clair short on star power, the Panthers are short, period. With no player taller than 6-foot-3 on its roster, USC was determined not to allow New Castle to use its height as an advantage.

So the Panthers substituted speed and strength for size. When they weren't pressuring the Red Hurricanes, they were pushing them around to jump out to a 20-point lead.

"You look at them and they don't look like great basketball players," New Castle coach John Sarandrea said, "but they have an expectation to win and impose their will on you."

When New Castle made a stirring fourth-quarter comeback, Upper St. Clair used its will to find a way to a 57-49 win Friday in a WPIAL Class AAAA quarterfinal at Ambridge.

Upper St. Clair (24-2) advances to play the winner of today's North Hills-Shaler game in the WPIAL semifinals either Tuesday or Wednesday at a site to be determined.

"I don't know if they knew we'd be that physical, that our pressure would be that good," USC coach Danny Holzer said. "By the third quarter, that started to wear on them."

USC rotated senior Cam Griffin and sophomore Pat McShane for on-the-ball pressure that forced Hurricanes guards David Richards, Anthony Harvey and Thomas Canal to start their offensive sets higher than usual and prevent them from getting it inside to 6-5 senior forwards Demetrius Searcy and Hakeem Fitzpatrick.

"We took them out of their sets, that was the game plan," Holzer said. "If we could make them play outside sets, we felt we'd be fine. We felt the first four minutes would dictate the game."

Said Sarandrea, "It worked. Our guards were 3 of 17 on 2-point field goals. They did a little better job from 3-point range (5 of 15), but that's a lot of misses."

USC had four players score in double figures, as Sean Lee had 16, Eric Swenson 14, including three 3-pointers, and Scott Dillie and Brandon Del Re 10 each.

The Panthers increased their 27-18 halftime lead to 17 by the end of the third quarter. That's when Richards and Harvey combined for 13 points to lead a furious comeback.

Searcy finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks, and Fitzpatrick scored six of his eight points, as New Castle cut USC's lead to 48-44 with 1:38 left.

"That was nothing short of a miracle, to cut it to four," Sarandrea said. "That's the time to take the lead, but they regrouped and extended it."

Lee scored eight fourth-quarter points, making his last six free-throw attempts in the final 1:32, and Dillie made 3 of 4 foul shots to help the Panthers advance.

"That's what championship teams do," Lee said. "We're a bunch of hard-working kids. We have won big games in other sports."

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