WINGATE — The Williamsburg Lady Pirates have faced a lot of adversity recently, but head coach Angela Detwiler and her players are adopting a glass half-full approach.

With star junior post Levada Gorsuch sidelined with an ankle injury, the significantly undersized Lady Pirates played with the heart of a lion Thursday night in their District 6 Class 1A third-place consolation game against Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy at the Bald Eagle Area High School gymnasium.

In a matchup in which both teams, win or lose, were guaranteed to move on to next week’s PIAA state tournament, both teams performed with championship game-type intensity.

Saint Joseph’s prevailed, 75-73, when senior Jacee Cunningham put in a rebound of her own missed shot just before the final buzzer, breaking a 73-73 tie and sending the Lady Wolfpack’s coaches and players celebrating on the court in a euphoric frenzy.

It took nothing away from a superlative effort by Williamsburg (22-5), which as the fourth-place finisher out of District 6, will now be tasked with opening the state playoffs next Saturday on the road against the WPIAL champion. The WPIAL champ will be determined tonight when Geibel Catholic meets Serra Catholic in the title game at the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center.

If Williamsburg plays with the same verve it displayed on Thursday night, the Lady Pirates will be a handful for any opposing team.

“We came out here tonight with the mindset that we are going to attack, trust each other, and play as a team tonight and that’s what these girls did,” said Detwiler, whose Lady Pirates placed five players in double figures in the scoring column. “We started five guards tonight, but we battled. This type of game is going to prepare us for the state tournament.”

Whether they’ll compete in the state tournament with or without the 6-foot-2 Gorsuch — an inside scoring and rebounding force who provided her teammates moral support while cheering them on from the bench in street clothes Thursday — remains to be seen at this point.

“We don’t know yet,” Detwiler said of Gorsuch’s availability for the state tournament. “She rolled her ankle against BG (in last week’s semifinal playoff game), and we’re hoping that she can play in our first game in the state tournament, but we don’t know.”

Feisty Williamsburg battled tooth-and-nail Thursday against the same Saint Joseph’s team that had beaten the Lady Pirates by 28 points in a regular-season game.

A balanced scoring attack led by senior guard Regan Prough, who scored 18 points by converting six 3-point shots, helped Williamsburg pick up the slack in Gorsuch’s absence.

Freshman Bella Royer scored 16 points, freshman Faith Detwiler added 15, and both senior LeeAnna Royer and freshman Brynn Lower chipped in 12 apiece for Williamsburg, which actually took a six-point, 61-55 lead on Prough’s final 3-pointer of the night two minutes into the fourth quarter.

Saint Joseph’s, however, was able to rally back behind a team effort of its own that featured four players with double-figure scoring numbers.

Senior guard Naomi Crispin scored a game-high 20 points for Saint Joseph’s, which also got 15 from Cunningham, 12 from junior Alexia Luckovich, and 11 from senior Aubrey Yartz. Saint Joe’s overcame the 61-55 deficit by putting together an 18-10 run to take the lead, 73-71 on two Cunningham free throws with 1:23 left.

A field goal by Royer 16 seconds later tied the game for Williamsburg, 73-73, and Cunningham’s steal with 28 seconds left set up her game-winning shot after Saint Joe’s coach Bethany Irwin had called a timeout.

“We told Jacee that she really had to crash the boards for us in the second half, and for her to get that big rebound and make that winning shot was awesome,” said Irwin, whose team hiked its season record to 24-3 and will open state tournament play next Saturday by traveling to face the WPIAL runner-up.

For Cunningham, Thursday’s winning field goal provided a bit of a personal redeemer after she said that she had failed to secure an important rebound in Saint Joseph’s one-point semifinal loss to Bishop Carroll Catholic last week.

“I was in the same position against Bishop Carroll, but I didn’t pull the ball down,” Cunningham said. “In my mind, I was going to do whatever it took to get that ball tonight. But that wasn’t the reason that we won this game.

“It was a team effort,” Cunningham added. “Everybody worked together for us tonight.”

WILLIAMSBURG (73): L. Royer 5 0-0 12, Prough 6 0-0 18, Detwiler 4 6-8 15, Lower 4 1-1 12, B. Royer 5 5-8 16, Colbert 0 0-0 0, Alexander 0 0-0 0. Totals — 24 12-17 73.

SAINT JOSEPH’S (75): Crispin 7 2-2 20, Yartz 4 3-3 11, Himes 3 0-0 9, Luckovich 4 0-0 12, Cunningham 6 3-4 15, Fetzer 3 2-2 8. Totals — 27 10-14 75.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Williamsburg 15 21 19 18–73

Saint Joseph’s 17 17 21 20–75

3-point goals: Williamsburg 13 (Prough 6, Lower 3, L. Royer 2, Detwiler, B. Royer); Saint Joseph’s 11 (Crispin 4, Luckovich 4, Himes 3).

Records: Williamsburg (22-5), Saint Joseph’s (24-3).

Officials: Brad Martz, Mark Dwyer, Ron Williams.