Such was the case on Friday night during the first boys semifinal matchup between Williamsburg and Claysburg-Kimmel.

The Bulldogs got up by double digits in the second half only to have the Blue Pirates get it to five in the fourth.

C-K, which traditionally hasn’t fared well in tight, physical games, was able to pull away late for a 59-45 win.

“Williamsburg never went away — I knew they wouldn’t as they kept battling,” Claysburg-Kimmel coach Mike Harris said. “… We just have to relax. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. I told them, ‘we were up — we’re winning this game, and we play it like we’re down.”

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Williamsburg's Ethan Reffner is cornered by Claysburg-Kimmel's Cole Walter (left) and Cory Walter.

Claysburg will host McConnellsburg Saturday in the championship scheduled for 6:45 p.m.

Claysburg and Williamsburg met on Dec. 11 in Williamsburg with the Pirates pulling away in the second half for a 50-43 win.

The Bulldogs began the fourth with a 14-point edge (44-30) and quickly got it to 16 when Brayden Haney converted.

The Blue Pirates dug in and reeled off an 11-2 run as Ethan Reffner, who recorded a game-high 27 points, tallied seven.

Reffner’s hoop around the six-minute mark pulled WHS to 48-41.

The gym, which was already loud with screaming Bulldog and Pirates fans, was deafening as the pressure and intensity of the game rose a few notches.

Unfortunately, that carried over onto the court as well as the players, who already were jawing with each other from the start, went to another level as well.

Cory Walter got a putback off his own miss to stretch the lead to nine (50-41) with five minutes to play. Reffner stuck back an offensive rebound of his own and then knocked down a pair of free throws following a technical foul called on C-K’s Christian Treon.

The Reffner foul shots brought Williamsburg within five at 50-45 with 3:49 left.

“Give our kids credit for not quitting and fighting back,” Williamsburg coach Jeff Detwiler said. “That wasn’t our best basketball (tonight), but they didn’t quit and were able to fight their way back. (We needed) a couple of shots here or there. But I was proud of their effort getting back in the game.”

The Blue Pirates went scoreless the rest of the way.

But the Bulldogs, following a pair of missed free throws, got a layup from Gavin Treon and a layup from Walter to make the score 54-45.

“We talk about it all the time, and for three days I have been telling them, that it’s going to be physical, the crowd is going to be crazy but you’ve got to keep your heads. I don’t know why they don’t listen to me when I tell them those things,” Harris said. “I called the one timeout and told them, ‘look, I told you what was going to happen and it’s happening. You guys are taking the bait, just stop,’ They got themselves calmed down and got the ball to Cory (Walter) who is our steady guy and he scored a couple of great buckets down the stretch.”

At that point, a technical foul was called on the Williamsburg bench, and Haney, who finished with 16 points, bagged both free throws to push the Claysburg advantage back to double digits at 56-45.

A bucket by Gavin Treon, who led Claysburg with 18 points, and 1-for-2 showing from the line by Blake Kulick — who canned three 3-pointers as part of his 12 points — set the final.

“This win is good because we don’t like each other,” Harris said. “Williamsburg doesn’t like us, we don’t like them. The crowd was screaming at our guys when we were down at their place — it was awful. The two schools don’t like each other. It carries over from football and carries over to here. But, we won. It was a great win.”

Williamsburg led just once in the contest as a driving layup from Reffner put his team up 6-5 nearly midway through the first quarter, which ended with the Bulldogs up 18-12.

The Blue Pirates lost one of their starters with 3:26 left in the first half when Evan Zehner went down with an injury and was unable to return to play.

“We always preach next man up mentality,” Detwiler said. “But we definitely feel for Evan right now.”

At that point, the Pirates trailed 24-20, but the Bulldogs closed the half with a 6-2 run to take a 30-22 edge at the midway point.

C-K (19-4) started the third stanza with a pair of basket from the Treon brothers to go up 34-22, and the lead didn’t drop into single digits until the fourth. Claysburg-Kimmel’s largest lead of the third frame was 15 (39-24 and 43-28).

Williamsburg (18-5) enters the District 6 Class 1A playoffs as the top seed and will play the winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal game between Harmony and Bishop at home on Friday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m.

“This is ICC playoffs, and the environment was incredible,” Detwiler said. “… This will hopefully get us mentally ready for this type of moment next Friday. This was just not the outcome we wanted.”

WILLIAMSBURG (45): Isenberg 3 2-4 8, Reffner 11 3-7 27, Harker 0 0-0 0, Uplinger 1 2-4 4, Zehner 1 0-0 3, Clark 0 0-0 0, Mock 1 0-0 3, Becker 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 7-15 45.

CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL (59): Haney 5 6-7 16, Kulick 4 1-2 12, C. Treon 3 0-0 7, G. Treon 7 2-2 18, Cory Walter 3 0-2 6, Cole Walter 0 0-9 0, Knisely 0 0-0 0. Totals — 22 9-13 59.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Williamsburg 12 10 8 15 — 45

Claysburg-Kimmel 18 12 14 15 — 59

3-point field goals: Williamsburg 4 (Reffner 2, Zehner, Mock); Claysburg-Kimmel 6 (Kulick 3, G. Treon 2, C. Treon).

Records: Williamsburg (18-5); Claysburg-Kimmel (19-4).