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By Nate Ritchey
nritchey@altoonamirror.com
WILLIAMSBURG -- The Williamsburg boys basketball team could have hung its heads when they struggled to shoot the ball through the first half and midway through the third.
However, the Blue Pirates stayed close enough throughout to put themselves in prime position when Blacklick Valley finally went through a stretch where nothing seemed to go its way.
That time came in the fourth and third-seeded Williamsburg took full advantage and turned a deficit into a lead it didn't relinquish.
In the end, the Pirates were able to ride that momentum to a 55-46 victory over the sixth-seeded Vikings on Tuesday night in District 6 Class 1A quarterfinal action.
"It wasn't one of our best shooting nights, and we had some breakdowns there at times," Williamsburg coach Jeff Detwiler said. "... In the fourth quarter, we stepped it up defensively, which really is the reason why we got the win tonight."
The Blue Pirates led just once in the opening half with 4:45 left in the first at 6-5 when Rowan Gorsuch made good on a layup after a defensive rebound and coast-to-coast drive.
Gino DiPaolo, who led BV with 21 points and 11 rebounds, made a driving layup to put his team back on top, and no matter how close Williamsburg got, the home team was never able to get back ahead in the first half and most of the third quarter.
Gorsuch, who ripped down 17 boards, kept the Pirates close by scoring 19 of his game-high 22 through the first three stanzas.
"Our strength is on the defensive side of the ball," Blacklick Valley coach Gary Wurm said. "We had a good game plan for them (Williamsburg) as we knew that Gorsuch would be the guy to focus on and we tried to keep the ball out of his hands."
Logan Brantner finally put WHS in the lead at 34-33 on a layup off a feed from Gorsuch with 1:54 left in the third.
Blacklick tied the contest on the ensuing possession as Collin Nedrich made the first of two free throws.
Alex Reba, who tallied 13 points for the Vikes, drove the middle of the lane for a score and then followed that with a 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining to give his team a 39-34 edge heading to the final quarter.
Back-to-back buckets from Gorsuch and Jesse Brumbaugh pulled Williamsburg within one at 39-38.
A layup by DiPaolo, driving layup from the Pirates' Ethan Reffner and flip shot by Reba had BV up 43-40 with 6:16 left to play.
This was the moment the Blue Pirates were waiting for, and they seized the opportunity as the Vikings went scoreless for nearly four minutes following the Reba make.
Meanwhile, Williamsburg, Brumbaugh and Reffner in particular, heated up as the duo scored the next 10 points in unanswered fashion by attacking the basket rather than settling for jumpers.
"Our shots weren't falling so we started attacking the basket, and we got some shots to go," Detwiler said.
Brumbaugh, who ended with 13 points, made a driving layup at 5:33 that gave Williamsburg the lead for good at 44-43.
Reffner, who totaled 12 points, completed a three-point play to put his team up 50-43.
"Ethan, being a ninth grader and the stage is pretty big with the first District 6 playoff game, but he kind of settled down, responded and made some really big shots for us," Detwiler said. "... Jesse really attacked in the second half (after being scoreless in the first half) as well. So, I'm just happy for those guys and how they responded."
The Blue Pirates turned the ball over on their next four trips before Blacklick Valley snapped the 16-4 WHS run when Greg Schilling got his only points on a 3-pointer with 2:27 left.
It was also the last points for the Vikings as they turned the ball over three more times and were forced to foul from there on out.
Williamsburg made just 5-of-10 from the line down the stretch, but it was enough as Blacklick continued to struggle.
The Blue Pirates improved to 16-7 and will host seventh-seeded Bishop McCort (a 72-56 winner of second-seeded Juniata Valley) on Friday at 7 p.m.
"I'm really happy with how the kids responded on one of those nights where we struggled offensively," Detwiler said.
The loss ended Blacklick Valley's season at 15-9.
The first quarter featured two ties and five lead changes with Blacklick Valley breaking an 11-11 tie on a Brayden Brown bucket with 49.3 left.
Reba knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Vikings their largest lead of the first half at five (16-11) just under 20 ticks to go.
The Blue Pirates never led in the second stanza but got to within one at 20-19 when Gorsuch drove for a layup with 2:41 remaining.
Two free throws from DiPaolo followed and then the two teams traded turnovers a missed shots before Jordan Kotelnicki made a layup with 49 seconds to go to give the Vikings a 24-19 edge -- the largest of the half.
Brantner scored on a putback with 31.3 to set the 24-21 halftime score in the Vikings' favor.
BV grabbed its largest lea at seven (28-21) with four straight points coming out of the locker room, but WHS began to chip back at that point.
"We had that lead, but we could never fully extend it," Wurm said. "We extended it to seven at one point. But we could never hit that shot that gets us to where it gets them (Williamsburg) on their heels."
BLACKLICK VALLEY (46): Brown 1 0-0 2, Nedrich 2 1-2 5, DiPaolo 8 5-5 21, Reba 5 0-0 13, Kotelnicki 1 0-0 2, Schilling 1 0-0 3, McEvoy 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 6-7 46.
WILLIAMSBURG (55): Isenberg 0 0-0 0, Brantner 2 0-0 4, Brumbaugh 6 1-2 13, Gorsuch 9 4-9 22, Parks 2 0-0 4, Zehner 0 0-0 0, Reffner 3 6-8 12. Totals: 22 11-19 55.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Blacklick Valley 16 8 15 7 -- 46
Williamsburg 11 10 13 21 -- 55
3-point field goals: Blacklick Valley 4 (Reba 3, Schilling); Williamsburg none.
Records: Blacklick Valley (15-9); Williamsburg (16-7).