MONROEVILLE — The Seneca Valley girls basketball team somberly marched toward the handshake line as Penn-Trafford's bench mobbed Katy Abreau.

Abreau started the mob scene by making a layup at the buzzer to send the upset-minded 16th-seed Raiders home disappointed.

Seneca Valley lost a seven-point lead in the final 5 minutes, 5 seconds as the top-seeded Warriors escaped with a 45-43 win Tuesday night during a WPIAL Quad-A first-round playoff game.

“It's heart-wrenching because we knew we could beat them with how we prepared,” Seneca Valley senior Shaley Bream said. “We worked so hard to get there to have it end like it did.”

A close game was to be expected. Penn-Trafford, which is the defending WPIAL champion, beat the Raiders 54-45 at home during the regular season.

Seneca Valley coach Rob Lombardo believes if the two teams played eight more times, all eight games would be decided by single-digit margins.

That's the message he wanted his team to take away from the game.

“There's the defending champ you just played for 32 minutes,” Lombardo said. “There's nothing else we could have done for 32 minutes except make one more bucket. That's all it comes down to.”

The Raiders ran out of buckets at the wrong time.

After Seneca Valley took a game-high seven-point lead, 40-33, on a Paige Montrose layup with 5:05 left, the Raiders only made one field goal for the rest of the game.

That opened a window for Penn-Trafford (22-1) to respond. The Warriors did with a 10-0 run.

Casey Aunskt made the key play to put the Warriors back ahead.

She banked the inbounds pass off a Seneca Valley defender and passed the ball to Emma Mull, who was hanging out at the 3-point line.

She swished a trey to put the Warriors ahead 42-40 with 2:47 left.

Penn-Trafford extended the lead on a free throw from Palarino.

“They've played everyone tough this year. Everyone says they have (nine) losses,” Warriors coach John Giannikas said. “All the losses they had were against teams ranked in the top five all year. We knew we were going to be in a battle.”

Bream kept the battle going.

Standing three steps behind the 3-point line in the center of the Gateway block 'G' logo, Bream made the long shot over a defender to tie the game with 1:05 remaining.

“I was feeling comfortable with shooting. I've been streaky this season,” said Bream, who had eight points and five rebounds. “I thought 'Why not? Let's pull it.' We drew up a three-point play, it was there, so I pulled it.”

Why not seemed to be a good description of Seneca Valley's attitude.

The Raiders were aggressive and opened the game on an 8-0 run.

Penn-Trafford didn't take its first lead until Mull made a 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer.

“We wanted to use the zone to slow them down,” Lombardo said. “They love to use the sidelines and push the tempo. We wanted to slow them down with the 3-2 zone, keep ourselves out of trouble and get on the glass.”

Palarino took a running shot and missed, giving Seneca Valley (13-10) the ball back. The Raiders turned it over with 11 seconds left.

Palarino, who finished with 14 points, drove to the rim and passed to Abreau to set up the winning basket.

“I had a timeout left and if I didn't see what I liked I was going to call it,” Giannikas said. “When Maria made a move to basket, I think everyone thought she was going to shoot the floater.”

Everyone was fooled. Palarino found Abreau to keep Penn-Trafford's hopes of repeating alive.

Seneca Valley had its efforts released.

“This is one of the best performances we've had all year, without a doubt,” Bream said. “We played a full 32 minutes.”

SENECA VALLEY 43

Michaela Lamont 4 2-2 11, Shaley Bream 3 1-1 8, Christina Dunning 2 2-4 6, Meghan Hess 1 0-0 2, Erin Danik 2 2-2 6, Paige Montrose 2 2-5 7, Sarah Jones 1 0-0 2. Totals: 15 9-14 43.

PENN-TRAFFORD 45

Mackenzie Aunkst 3 2-2 5, Kylie Grabowski 4 0-0 10, Maria Palarino 5 1-3 14, Casey Aunkst 0 2-3 2, Katy Abreau 3 2-4 8, Emma Mull 2 0-0 6, Taylor Karan 0 0-0 0, Michelle Bosco 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 7-12 45.

Seneca Valley 10 11 14 8 — 43

Penn-Trafford10 12 11 12 — 45

3-point goals: Seneca Valley 3 (Lamont 2, Bream); Penn-Trafford 7 (Palarino 3, Grabowski 2, Mull 2)