With Latrobe fast on their bumper and their 18-point lead shaved to one, the Penn-Trafford girls basketball team did the only thing they could to quell the situation in the third quarter: They got mad.

“Coach Chuck (Fontana) always talks about us being relentless,” Lady Warriors guard Torrie DeStefano said. “We want to attack. We said, this is not us, so let’s change it. A switch clicked.”

Red-faced and determined to keep their perfect record intact, the third-ranked Lady Warriors finished the way they started and held back the visiting Wildcats, 61-45, in a Section 2-5A game Monday night in Harrison City.

DeStefano finished just shy of a triple-­double — 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals — to power the Lady Warriors (16-0, 8-0), the only undefeated team in WPIAL Class 5A, to their eighth straight win at home.

DeStefano scored 10 in the fourth and led a strong defensive charge.

“Torrie took over. That was one of the best all-around performances I have seen,” Penn-Trafford coach John Giannikas said. “She was all over the place. She did little things that led to steals and made plays.

“We have to be ready for every game. The girls love the challenge.”

Latrobe (8-7, 4-3), which had won three of four coming in, trailed 21-6 after the first quarter and 30-20 at halftime but rallied.

It smushed a 26-8 deficit down to 30-29, finding an extra gear coming out of the halftime break. But Penn-Trafford pushed back, never relinquishing the lead and staying on track for its first section title since 2014-15.

“It was a great game,” Giannikas said. “You have to give Latrobe credit for fighting back. Our girls trust each other. We had to take care of the ball against their zone. We had a lot of open looks: floaters, back-door layups, good shots.”

Penn-Trafford, which also had trouble putting Latrobe away in their first meeting, earned the season sweep.

“We had to wake up,” Latrobe coach Mackenzie Livingston said. “They beat us with their effort in the first two quarters. I think we had 20 turnovers in the first half.

“We went seven deep. … I am proud of the way we fought back, but we ran out of steam.”

Maggie Maiers led Latrobe with a game-high 21 points, scoring eight in the second and third quarters.

Penn-Trafford loathes slow starts, but this wasn’t one of them. DeStefano hit two 3s during a 21-point first quarter, the team’s second straight fast start. The other came at Indiana.

Olivia Weishaar also hit a 3 early in the second quarter, and Kamryn Pieper scored inside to make it 28-10.

But the momentum wore off, and Latrobe roared back.

The Wildcats used a 15-0 run to close the gap to 30-29, with Brylee Bodnar finishing a three-point play, and Carley Berk scoring on a fast break.

Their surge also diminished, though, and Penn-Trafford regrouped in a hurry.

It took a 40-34 lead to the fourth and jump-started its defense to push the advantage back to double figures.

“We have to play four quarters,” Livingston said. “We have to get over that hump.”

Berk, a Millersville commit who had a career-high 31 points in a 70-58 loss to Penn-Trafford earlier in the season, was limited to nine in the rematch, a credit to sticky man-to-man defense from Isabella Fontana, Pieper and DeStefano.

Fontana finished with 10 points.

DeStefano made a driving layup then scored off a steal. Her foul-line jumper gave the Lady Warriors a 52-38 lead with four minute to go.

“Pep (Olivia Pepple) used to talk about taking over now,” DeStefano said. “I was thinking that: Just take over now.”

Hannah Weishaar put back a miss to extend the lead to 59-42, and Pieper’s layup pushed the margin back to 18 with just under a minute to play.

Weishaar finished with nine points and Pieper added eight.