RADNOR — After Wednesday night’s PIAA Class AAA second-round win over Eastern York, Archbishop Carroll senior guard Kerri Shields said she wasn’t happy with the way she had been shooting.

After the first period of the Patriots’ quarterfinal contest with defending state champion Mount St. Joseph at Villanova’s Pavilion Saturday afternoon, Shields had attempted one shot. It didn’t go in. By halftime, she was 1-for-5 from the floor.

When the second half began, Shields did not connect on her first field-goal attempt. That’s when she decided enough was enough.

In the last 15 minutes of the game, Shields was 7-for-8, with five of those shots from behind the arc. She went 3-for-3 — all 3s — in the fourth period, finished with 23 points, three steals and three assists as Carroll ended Mount’s reign in Class AAA by posting a 56-35 decision.

The Patriots (28-1), champions of District 12, will take on District Three champion Trinity (22-8), a 49-29 winner over District 11 champ Allentown Central Catholic, in a semifinal contest Wednesday night. The winner will play Saturday night Penn State University for the state title against the winner of the game between Lampeter-Strasburg (27-3) and General McLane (26-1).

Carroll had a 26-19 halftime lead Saturday. One of the big reasons for the Pats’ advantage was their defense, which limited the Magic (28-2) to 6-for-19 (31.6 percent) shooting in the first two periods and forced 10 turnovers.

Once the second half got under way, Shields found the shooting touch she had been missing. Among her 10 third-period points were three from long range that gave her team a 10-point lead.

Kaitlin Cole (17 points, six rebounds) grabbed a missed shot and was fouled in the last second. She dropped in one of two free throws, putting Carroll ahead by 12 points after three.

“Kaitlin did a great job with her offensive rebounding,” Shields said. “She made her shots and she played good defense. That was the biggest thing about this win — it was a team win.”

After the Mount opened the final period by scoring the first three points, two Shields 3-pointers left the Magic on the wrong end of a 48-33 score.

“At halftime, (head coach Chuck Creighton) and my mom (assistant coach Renie Shields) told me to relax and said they knew my shots would start going in,” Shields said. “It felt so good to make that first (3-pointer). I kept shooting and they kept going in.”

Creighton, who is completing his second season as Carroll’s head coach, smiled when asked about Shields.

“What Kerri did doesn’t surprise me,” Creighton said. “She’s one of the best all-around players I’ve ever seen. She plays hard on defense and she’s so unselfish.

“I know how hard she and her sister (Erin, a junior) work. It’s great to see her have a game like that. We had a good defensive game today, which we needed against a team that had so many good players. We did everything we could to make things difficult for them when they were shooting.”

Mount senior Elle Hagedorn, who was an AAU teammate of the Shields sisters, Cole and Carroll senior guard Hollie Mershon last summer, got 13 points. She was 3-for-8 from the floor and 6-for-7 at the line.

“We’ve all been such good friends with Elle because of the time we spent together in AAU,” Cole said. “It was so weird seeing her in a different uniform.”

Hagedorn, who will play next winter at Harvard University, was disappointed to wear a Mount uniform for the last time but offered congratulations to her former teammates.

“I’ve seen Kerri make five shots in a row like that before,” she said. “They played such good defense today and made things so tough for us.

“Carroll’s in their first year in the PIAA and I hope they get to experience what I experienced last year (in the state final).”

Shields wasn’t thinking about Penn State and the Class AAA title contest.

“After Wednesday maybe we’ll be able to think about something like that,” she said. “We have off (today), then we’ve got to get ready (to play Trinity Wednesday).”