The town of Williamsburg is a close-knit, basketball rich town that has waited 29 long years to see their Lady Blue Pirates advance back to a state championship game.

After a few misses with good teams the past few years, the Williamsburg Community High School has punched a return trip to the Giant Center for the first time since claiming the 1997 state championship.

In the second half, the Lady Pirates out-hustled, out-rebounded, out-defended, out-shot, outfought and overall, just outplayed Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy in earning a 60-41 victory in PIAA Class 1A semifinal action.

“I think it’s honestly a great feeling for me because my mom was a part of the ’97 championship team,” Williamsburg senior Regan Prough said. “I think that’s just history repeating itself in the Prough family.”

Williamsburg's Regan Prough battles St. Joseph's Alexia Luckovich for a loose ball.

WHS improved to 26-5 and into a matchup on Friday against Delco Christian, a 44-41 winner over Lourdes, with tipoff scheduled for noon.

“I just knew that we are really wanted it this year,” Williamsburg senior LeeAnna Royer said. “We have a team with so much talent, girls that are athletic enough to be able to come in and be able to defend and make things happen. This is all I’ve ever wanted — it’s like a dream come true. I wanted to get to states, and I want to win it all.”

In the opening half, following a first quarter that featured five lead changes and one time, the WolfPack tied the contest at 20-20 when Jacee Cunningham made a layup at 2:42.

The Pirates’ LeeAnna Royer, who drew the assignment of defending Saint Joe’s Naomi Crispin who poured in 37 points on Saturday against Bishop Guilfoyle, delivered her third 3-pointer of the night and eighth straight point for her team.

“Honesty, I’m very spoiled when it comes to LeeAnna. … Tonight, she had to face-guard Crispin and she did it for four quarters,” Williamsburg coach Angela Detwiler said. “Most high school girls basketball players cannot face-guard someone for four quarters. Then she’s also coming down offensively hitting shots and getting us into an offense.”

The bucket gave Williamsburg the lead for good and was part of a 13-3 run that started with WHS down 18-13 and ended with it up 26-21 following a Bella Royer old fashioned three-point play.

In the first half, which Williamsburg went into the break up 28-23, Saint Joseph’s dominated on the glass by a 25-13 margin as a lot of its points came on second and third chances.

In the second half, the Blue Pirates were two steps ahead on loose balls, creating turnovers (11 forced to only giving it up half that themselves) and they pulled down more key rebounds.

“I told the girls before the game that no one player on this team has to put a lot of pressure on themselves. We just have so many different girls that can step up,” Coach Detwiler said. “So, each possession we’re going to work it around and whoever is open is going to be the one that shoots it. I feel like our team is really balanced this year and it helps when you’re in a big game like this because there is not one or two people that have the pressure on them.”

WHS came out of the halftime locker room looking to completely seize control, and it did. The closest the WolfPack got the rest of the way was five points when Lauren Himes, who finished with 11 points before fouling out with two quick fouls early in the fourth, answered LeeAnna Royer’s triple with one of her own to make the score 31-26.

“We came in and we said we had to do the little things — box out, go for loose balls because we’re not just going to win on shots,” Prough said. “I think that we were just so ready.”

A 9-2 burst by Williamsburg that Levada Gorsuch capped off with a layup in transition to give her team its largest advantage of the third at 12 points (40-28) with 90 seconds to go.

A free throw by Aubrey Yartz, who posted just four points but also ripped down a game-high 16 boards for SJCA, ended the run.

The Lady Pirates scored 19 points in the fourth with only three coming from the field. However, they strolled to the free throw line 14 times in the final eight minutes of action and knocked 13 of those.

Faith Detwiler, who ended her night with 14 points, canned all eight of her attempts, while Brynn Lower and Gorsuch hit two apiece and Prough added one.

WHS went into attack mode as well in the second half as drives to the hoop resulted in either layups or trips to the line.

For the night, Williamsburg buried 25-of-29 from the foul line, including 6-of-8 in the third to go along with the fourth quarter performance after hitting 6-of-7 total in the first half.

“We end every practice shooting foul shots,” Coach Detwiler said. “I think another part of that was the girls’ poise tonight. I felt like they came out here on a really big stage and they were really calm, they stuck to their game plan, they didn’t get caught up in the environment. You could see that at the foul line tonight.”

While the Lady Pirates were finding success figuring a way to put points on the scoreboard, the WolfPack were completely out of sorts and it began with the defense LeeAnna Royer was putting on Crispin.

The senior guard, who scored over 2,000 points in her career, was held to 14, and many times forced the issue and either lost the ball out of bounds, had it stolen or was forced into a tough, off-balance shot attempt.

“So, they were in the box and one, and then they also had two girls on her at certain times,” Saint Joseph’s coach Bethany Irwin said. “We can set as many picks as you want, but it’s just the rest of them (Williamsburg) played really well and knew where she was.”

LeeAnna Royer led all scorers with 16 points as the senior buried four from deep, while Gorsuch collected a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Following a Crispin layup at 6:33 of the final frame, Saint Joseph’s was still down only 10 at 45-35.

However, Williamsburg reeled off a 15-6 finish to the contest as it finally solved the WolfPack this year after losing two prior games this season: 72-44 on Jan. 18 and 75-73 in the consolation contest of District 6 1A play on Feb. 26.

“After 30 years (coaching), I know that all too well,” Irwin said about the adage of it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same year. “… So, I knew that was going to be the case (tonight).”

SAINT JOSEPH’S CATHOLIC ACADEMY (41): Luckovich 2 0-0 4, Crispin 4 5-6 14, Cunningham 3 0-0 6, Yartz 0 4-6 4, Himes 3 2-2 11, Fetzer 0 2-4 2. Chappell 0 0-0 0, Soyster 0 0-2 0. Totals: 12 13-20 41.

WILLIAMSBURG (60): Lower 1 4-6 6, R. Prough 3 1-2 8, L. Royer 5 2-2 16, Gorsuch 2 7-8 11, B. Royer 1 3-5 5, Detwiler 3 8-8 14, Colbert 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 25-29 60.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

SAINT JOSEPH’S ACADEMY 13 10 8 10 — 41

WILLIAMSBURG 11 17 13 19 — 60

3-point field goals: Saint Joseph’s Academy 4 (Himes 3, Crispin); Williamsburg 5 (L. Royer 4, R. Prough).

Records: Saint Joseph’s Academy (27-4); Williamsburg (26-5).