Mar 10, 2025
(Mirror photo by Michael Boytim) Williamsburg celebrates after its victory over Union.
By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
NEW CASTLE — Entering the PIAA playoffs as the fourth-seed out of District 6, the Williamsburg girls basketball team was forced to travel nearly three hours to play at undefeated WPIAL champion Union on Saturday.
To make matters worse, the Lady Blue Pirates had to play in a gym where a banner commemorating Union’s win in the 2023 PIAA Class 1A championship hangs.
That’s a banner many in Williamsburg believe could have ended up on the Lady Pirates’ wall if not for the Scotties’ second-half rally in a game they trailed by 10 to Williamsburg in the PIAA quarterfinals that year.
All of those factors, along with the always-present one-and-done pressure that comes with the state playoffs, led to an emotional atmosphere in New Castle.
Warnings were handed out, followed by jeers from the fans of both sides as players found themselves in foul trouble and eventually boiled over into a technical foul against Union coach Rob Nogay.
But in the end, this time it was Williamsburg that kept its composure and held on before eventually distancing itself from Union with late free throws in a 49-33 victory.
“We wanted revenge really badly,” Williamsburg junior LeeAnna Royer said. “We wanted to come out strong and aggressive and attack them. We were really pumped up. We believed in each other and played as a team.”
Royer played in that game two years ago, along with Union’s Mia Pruehs and Kylie Fruehstorfer, and played a large role in deciding the victor on Saturday by finishing with a game-high 18 points as well as 13 rebounds — many of them offensive.
“LeeAnna is so athletic,” Williamsburg coach Angela Detwiler said. “She’s either second or third on our team in rebounds. She does this. Coming into this game, all week long, we worked on getting offensive rebounds. Union has a really good zone, and we didn’t want to be one shot and done, so we worked on it every day in practice. We put one person back and had four people going in for rebounds. LeeAnna was crashing the boards every single time, and she’s athletic. She can jump really high for her height.”
The Lady Blue Pirates jumped out to an 8-0 lead on a layup from Levada Gorsuch, a steal and layup by Royer, a jumper from Regan Prough and two free throws by Gorsuch while Union was being stifled by full-court defense.
“I watched a lot of film on Union, and I knew they had a really good zone,” Detwiler said. “I didn’t want it to turn into a game where they are just coming down and doing these halfcourt sets. So, we really worked all week on having an attacking mentality. We were doing a full-court press and pushing the ball up the floor. Those first eight points, that was our game plan going in. We really wanted to attack.”
But with 3:15 to play in the first quarter, Gorsuch was whistled for her second foul on what appeared to be a jump ball. She exited the game, and Fruehstorfer made a 3-pointer followed by a jumper by Miera Gunn that all but erased Williamsburg’s quick start.
“When we had Gorsuch in foul trouble, we switched up how we were attacking offensively,” Union coach Rob Nogay said. “We had a game plan for when she was in and when she wasn’t. We did a good job playing power basketball when she was out.”
Detwiler brought Gorsuch back for the start of the second quarter, but she picked up her third foul just 12 seconds into the quarter. Not long after, Royer committed her second foul much to the frustration of Detwiler, who received a warning from the officials with 6:38 to play in the half.
Midway through the second quarter, Union took a three-point lead when Olivia Benedict made a free throw, missed the second and got her own rebound for a layup, but Prough answered with a 3-pointer, and Royer banked in a shot just before the buzzer to give the Lady Blue Pirates a 23-21 halftime lead.
“We got that nice lead, and then two of my best players got in foul trouble,” Detwiler said. “I told the girls after the game that they showed a lot of poise. I felt like earlier in the season, that would have really hurt us. We just kept coming out, running our plays, executing things and girls came off the bench and played well. I thought we showed a lot of poise instead of panicking because our two best players were in foul trouble.”
Union’s Hayden Strickler connected on a 3-pointer to start the second half to give the Scotties what turned out to be their final lead of the game.
Gorsuch returned to the court and began to take over the game with three straight baskets to put Williamsburg ahead by five.
Leading by four late in the third quarter, the Lady Blue Pirates held for the final shot and Anastasia Ranalli put it in to make it 35-29.
“We just lost to Saint Joe’s by one point,” Detwiler said. “So, we have been talking about how important every single possession can be, and that’s why in the last minute of those quarters, we’re trying to hang on to that ball, get a good shot and make sure they don’t get one.”
Pruehs scored to begin the fourth quarter, but Union got no closer and scored its final points of the game on a Fruehstorfer runner with just under three minutes to play.
Williamsburg ended the game on a 10-0 run by going 10-for-16 from the foul line.
All four District 6 Class 1A girls teams won on Saturday by double digits.
“The four teams in District 6 will probably be the last four standing on this side of the bracket,” Nogay said. “We knew District 6 was loaded, and we knew we had our hands full today. It’s a really good basketball team. I thought we put up a pretty good effort against them. We could have knocked a couple more shots down, but my kids played hard. That’s all you can ask them to do. I knew it was going to be tough. (Gorsuch) is a big-time player inside, and we know Royer from a couple years ago. Good luck to them — that’s a good team.”
For Williamsburg, the victory not only avenged a painful loss from two years ago, it helped restore some swagger after the Lady Pirates had lost three of their last four games.
“The last two weeks of the postseason, we lost three games (one to Berlin in the Inter-County Conference playoffs and two in the District 6 playoffs),” Detwiler said. “That’s as many as we lost in our whole regular season. On Monday, when they came into practice after we had that third loss, I knew we were going to be OK, because they were so hungry to get back in the gym. I feel like sometimes in losing, you can figure out what your team’s character is. You lose — your team is either going to keep their heads down or really respond to that. I felt like the girls were hungrier. They gave me so much this week in the gym.”
Williamsburg will play District 9 runner-up Otto-Eldred at Clarion University in the second round on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
“It feels really good to keep it going and go further in the state playoffs,” Royer said. “We have had losses the last couple weeks, but a game like this helps our confidence.”
WILLIAMSBURG (49): Ranalli 4 1-4 9, Prough 2 0-0 5, Royer 4 10-16 18, G. Colbert 0 0-0 0, Gorsuch 6 5-6 17, Alexander 0 0-0 0, A. Colbert 0 0-0 0, Kagarise 0 0-0 0. Totals — 16 16-26 49.
UNION (33): Fruehstorfer 3 2-2 9, Preuhs 2 0-0 4, Nogay 0 0-0 0, Gunn 4 0-0 9, Strickler 2 0-0 6, Benedict 2 1-3 5, Joseph 0 0-0 0. Totals — 13 3-5 33.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Williamsburg 13 10 12 14 — 49
Union 5 16 8 4 — 33
3-point goals: Williamsburg 1 (Prough); Union 3 (Strickler 2, Fruehstorfer).
Records: Williamsburg (21-6); Union (25-1).
Officials: Carla Smith, George Snyder, Gabe Mild.
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