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PORTLAND — Kylie Lamson never panicked. But the thought occurred to her: The Cheverus girls basketball team’s season, and her high school career, could be coming to a close.

“Yeah, (it did) a little bit,” she said. “A little bit in the third quarter.”

Lamson then breathed life into both. The senior scored 13 of her 26 points in the fourth quarter, leading top-seeded Cheverus to a come-from-behind 45-39 victory over Biddeford in a Class A South semifinal Thursday afternoon at the Portland Expo.

The top-ranked Stags (19-1) trailed for the first 31 minutes but survived to face No. 3 South Portland on Saturday at Cross Insurance Arena. Biddeford, led by 13 points from Gabby Silva, nine from Jordyn Crump and eight from Anna Smyth, finished 16-4.

“That was an insane game. I don’t even know how to put it into words,” said Lamson, who sank a go-ahead 3-pointer with 59 seconds to play.

The Stags trailed by 11 midway through the third quarter were still down eight early in the fourth but rallied to avenge their only defeat.

“This is one of the top ones,” coach Bill Goodman said. “This feeling is why I coach, because you can’t buy it.”

Biddeford burned the Stags often in transition and held a 30-23 lead through three quarters. But Lamson, a Miss Maine Basketball semifinalist, got rolling and scored eight of the Stags’ next 15 points, including a layup that cut the deficit to 39-38 with 1:55 to go.

“I knew I needed to score at some point,” Lamson said, “and the fourth quarter just happened to be it.”

Two possessions later, Rachel LaSalle deflected a pass, and a lunging Abby Kelly came up with the ball. She passed it from her knees over to Lamson, who knocked down a 3-pointer to put Cheverus ahead for the first time.

“I did not know I would get it out of my hands in time (before falling out of bounds),” Kelly said. “I saw a white jersey there, so I just threw it there.”

“I just saw the ball come to me, and then I shot it and it went in and I’m screaming,” Lamson said. “It was crazy.”

Pressure defense kept Cheverus in the game. The Stags flustered the Tigers, who went 2 for 13 from the field in the fourth quarter while turning the ball over five times.

“That’s what we’re built on, so we’ve got to do what we’re best at,” Goodman said. “I didn’t want the season to end not doing what we’re great at.”

For Biddeford, it was more tournament heartbreak, a year after falling in the final seconds of overtime in the Class B state final.

“We got away from doing what we did well getting here, and that was playing together and making sure that we had people under the basket to rebound,” Biddeford coach Jeannine Paradis said. “We’re still pretty young, we’ve come a long way since last year, and we’re only going to get better next year.”