With no junior varsity game, it was a 6 p.m. start and the Lady Blue Pirates needed a few minutes to catch up to the Lady Hornets.

JV jumped out to a seven-point lead before Williamsburg settle in to a big run that completely turned the contest in its favor.

The Lady Pirates used that momentum and a monster game from Levada Gorsuch, including the 1,000th point of her career, to cruise to a 61-43 victory over the Lady Green Hornets.

“I think our coach calling a timeout and telling us to calm down and breathe because we’ve got this,” Gorsuch said. “We just needed to learn how to handle the early stressful situation. Tonight, we proved that we could.”

WHS came out feeling the pressure of helping Gorsuch reach the milestone as the junior needed just 10 points.

Valley began with five points from Sage Walters before Brynn Lower made good on a baseline driving layup.

A floater from the Hornets’ Anna Taylor prompted a timeout from Detwiler with 3:34 showing on the clock.

The message was simple, and despite Taylor coming out and stretching the JV lead to 9-2 with a driving layup exactly a minute later, Williamsburg heeded the coaches’ instructions.

“We came out with a little bit of jitters with it being Vada’s 1,000-point night,” Williamsburg coach Angela Detwiler said. “The gym was packed and I called a timeout to tell the girls to calm down, play our defense and run our offense. That’s what we did, we just came out and started playing ball the way we know how to play.”

Gorsuch got the ball rolling at 2:20 of the first as her layup kickstarted 10 straight points, eight of which came from Gorsuch and the other on a Lower putback, to put the Pirates in front with just under a minute to play.

Gorsuch grabbed her own miss and put it back up and in at the first quarter buzzer to give WHS a 12-9 advantage.

Following a steal by the Lady Blue Pirates’ Faith Detwiler, Gorsuch ripped down an offensive rebound and stuck it back in to reach the 1,000-point mark at 7:32 of the second frame.

As time was called, Gorsuch immediately ran over and hugged her brother, Rowan, father, Ryan, and mother, Jen, as well as others.

“This was really important because my dad and brother reached it (1,000 points),” Gorsuch said. “So, it was kind of always on my shoulders to get it, so now it’s just really exciting for it to happen.”

Once play resumed following pictures, Gorsuch continued her hot scoring streak as she delivered six straight for the Pirates to extend the lead to 20-11.

The rest of the team continued the scoring as Faith Detwiler tallied six of the next seven points for WHS that helped push its lead to 28-11.

“I think what was important was for us to come out and play our game,” Juniata Valley coach Liz Radabaugh said. “We started that way but then it slipped away. We got caught up in the tempo that Williamsburg likes to run. Obviously, that doesn’t suit our team very well.”

When JV’s Aubrey Anderson knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:17 left in the half, the Pirates’ lead was cut in half to 28-14.

All told, from the time Williamsburg trailed 9-2 until right after Faith Detwiler made the second of two foul shots right before Anderson’s trey, the Lady Blue Pirates’ run was a 26-2 burst.

Lower made a shot and Gorsuch capped off her 20-point first half with a layup before JV’s Lucy Fouse made the halftime score 32-16 with a baseline jumper.

“Our goal tonight was to push the pace as they (Juniata Valley) don’t have a lot of numbers and they have a lot of girls that play 32 minutes,” Coach Detwiler said. “Vada does a really nice job of that (pushing the pace) as a post player. I felt like she almost got us pushing the pace by getting down the floor.”

In the second half, the Green Hornets, who never let up despite being unable to chip away at the deficit, got as close as 17 when Mazzy Hartman made the first of two free throws 13 seconds into the fourth to make the score 47-30.

Williamsburg’s biggest lead of 24 was reached twice — 59-35 and 61-37 — on a basket by Grace Colbert and on a layup by Gorsuch that finished her night with 31 points.

Anna Taylor, who led Valley with 15 points and nine rebounds, scored four and Hartman added two late to set the final margin.

“Our team has really been working on maintaining a positive mindset,” Radabaugh said. “… That’s what we talked about at halftime time, and I think they kept that up very well.”

In addition to her 31 points, Gorsuch also ripped down 10 rebounds and blocked six shots.

“Right now, she (Gorsuch) is averaging 25 points and 10 rebounds,” Coach Detwiler said. “Her presence in the paint with her blocks and her rebounds is amazing. But, this year she has gotten really at reading the defense. … When teams are doubling her, she’s doing a really nice job of kicking it out to the perimeter to give our guards wide open looks.”

Lower finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals, while Faith Detwiler had nine points and seven steals.

JUNIATA VALLEY (43): Fouse 3 0-2 6, Walters 2 0-0 5, Anderson 3 1-2 8, Hartman 3 2-3 9, Taylor 5 3-4 15, Smith 0 0-0 0, Hutton 0 0-0 0, Wise 0 0-0 0. Totals — 16 6-11 43.

WILLIAMSBURG (61): Lower 5 0-0 10, Colbert 2 0-0 5, Gorsuch 13 4-6 31, R. Prough 1 0-0 2, Royer 1 2-2 4, Detwiler 3 1-2 9, M. Prough 0 0-0 0, Alexander 0 0-0 0, Kagarise 0 0-0 0, Houck 0 0-0 0, Parks 0 0-0 0. Totals — 25 7-10 61.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Juniata Valley 9 7 13 14 — 43

Williamsburg 12 20 15 14 — 61

3-point field goals: Juniata Valley 2 (Walters, Anderson); Williamsburg 4 (Detwiler 2, Colbert, Gorsuch).

Records: Juniata Valley (2-1); Williamsburg (4-1).

JV: No game.