enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Alyssa Stokes, center, celebrates with teammates Sloane Sorrell, left, and Margaret Burns after making a shot at the buzzer to give Noble a 40-38 win over South Portland in a Western Class A semifinal Friday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Erin Stilphen of South Portland can do nothing but watch Friday night as Margaret Burns and her Noble High teammates begin their celebration after Alyssa Stokes’ shot beat the buzzer and the Red Riots, 40-38.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Abby Hasson of South Portland gets inside position on Margaret Burns of Noble for a rebound Friday night during Noble’s 40-38 victory in a Western Class A semifinal.

Stunning. Unbelievable. Inspiring. Improbable.

Take your choice. Any of those words can be used to describe Noble High’s Western Class A semifinal victory against South Portland on Friday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

The third-seeded Knights trailed by 16 in the second quarter, scored only eight points in the first half, yet somehow came back to defeat the second-ranked Red Riots 40-38 on a 10-foot floater by Alyssa Stokes that bounced around the rim and dropped in as the buzzer sounded to end the game.

As her teammates deliriously swarmed her, South Portland’s players stood in stunned silence.

“It looked like they had broken down a bit,’’ said South Portland Coach Mike Giordano. “But a senior took charge and made something happen. Now they’re moving on and we’re going home.’’

Noble (16-4) will play top-ranked Deering at 7 p.m. today in the regional championship game. The Knights, looking for their first girls’ basketball title, lost to Deering 59-34 in mid-January.

The game featured a great individual showdown between juniors Sloane Sorrell of Noble and Brianna Hawkins of South Portland. Sorrell scored 26, points while Hawkins had 19 – and they scored the big baskets.

With Noble trailing 34-33, Sorrell hit a jaw-dropping shot, throwing in a bank shot from the left while falling to the floor. She was fouled and converted the free throw for a 36-34 Noble lead with 2:51 remaining in the fourth.

Hawkins responded with a foul-line jumper to tie it. Sorrell came back with another 10-foot bank shot, this one from the right with 1:08 left, to give Noble a 38-36 lead. Hawkins then went inside to tie the game with 38.6 seconds left.

Noble called a timeout with 30 seconds remaining to set up the winning play.

It didn’t go exactly as planned.

“It’s a play we’ve practiced all year but have never run in a game,’’ said Knight Coach Kyle Keenan.“There was a little confusion. We got the ball to the person we wanted, but the cut didn’t happen. Then the secondary cut wasn’t happening …’’

That, the secondary cut, would be Stokes. What happened was this: Stokes got the ball to Margaret Burns at the foul line with about five seconds left – in traffic. As Burns looked to pass, Stokes realized she needed to cut to the basket – “You could see the light go on in her head,’’ said Keenan – so she did.

Burns somehow dropped the ball off to her, and as Stokes leaned she threw the shot up. It hit the rim, bounced once and dropped in.

“I was just thinking, go to the ball and get the shot off,’’ said Stokes. “It’s not the way we drew it up, but we got the hoop.’’

The Knights couldn’t get anything in the first half. They missed six foul shots in the first half, shot just 1 of 8 in the second quarter and had eight turnovers to trail 22-8.

“We said we knew we were a lot better than that, that we could score more than eight points in a half,’’ Stokes said. “We were determined to go out and give 100 percent.’’

Noble came back by scoring the first eight points of the third quarter. “We had a chance there at the beginning of the second half to shut the door and we didn’t,’’ said Giordano.

Noble slowly crept back and got a huge 3-pointer from Rebecca Creveling with four seconds left in the third quarter to make it 28-26. “That was huge for us,’’ said Keenan. “It gave us a big emotional lift.’’

Sorrell then stole a pass on South Portland’s first possession of the fourth quarter and went coast-to-coast for a layup to tie the game and set up the wild finish.

“I’m just so happy,’’ said Sorrell. “This is a big step for our team.’’

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at: mlowe@pressherald.com