By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

WILLIAMSBURG — Angela Detwiler is stressing defense to her team in her first year as the Williamsburg High School girls basketball coach this season.

“Defense is a big key for us,” said Detwiler, a 2004 Bishop Guilfoyle graduate who was a standout during her high school playing days with the Lady Marauders. “There are still areas where we can improve defensively, but we’ve been working hard on defense in practice this year.”

It showed Monday night, as the Lady Pirates (now 5-1) converted four steals into layups in a first quarter that they dominated, 27-6, en route to a 64-36 non-conference victory over Bellwood-Antis at the Williamsburg High School gymnasium.

Junior guard LeeAnna Royer scored 14 of her game-high 26 points in the first quarter, and cashed in two steals for layups in the period, as she led Williamsburg’s defensive effort.

“LeeAnna is really good on defense, and she was putting pressure on their point guard tonight,” Detwiler said.

Williamsburg burst out to a 15-2 lead in the opening minutes. After junior guard Regan Prough converted a steal into a layup to open the scoring, Royer came up with a steal and another layup before Bellwood junior Lilly Gerwert answered with a field goal.

Williamsburg reeled off the next 11 points, however, with Royer scoring on two layups — the second of which was the front end of a 3-point play for her — while sophomore center Levada Gorsuch followed with a putback bucket, Royer hit a jumper, and Gorsuch cashed in a breakaway layup after a teammate’s steal at the opposite end of the court.

“I thought we played some pretty good defense,” Royer said of Williamsburg’s big first quarter. “We ran some plays, moved the ball well, and I got open on some screens. We had people just getting open.”

After building its 15-2 lead, Williamsburg went on a 12-4 run to close the quarter, with Royer converting another steal into a layup before hitting a 3-point shot near the end of the period, junior Lillian Kagarise chipping in a field goal and 3-point shot, and sophomore Anna Colbert scoring on a back-door layup.

Bellwood (3-2) faced an insurmountable uphill struggle after Williamsburg’s monster first quarter.

“Turnovers … we came out timid and on our heels tonight, instead of being aggressive,” Bellwood coach Kyley Longo said. “Our goal was to attack them offensively, but in order to do that, we needed to be able to take care of the basketball, which we didn’t do.”

The first quarter set the tone for the rest of the game, as Williamsburg held a 42-20 halftime lead and a 58-28 advantage after three quarters, kicking the clock into a mercy-rule running mode in the fourth quarter.

Gorsuch and senior forward Anastasia Ranalli scored 10 points apiece for Williamsburg, while Gerwert’s 14 led Bellwood.

“The key for us moving forward is to get several people to contribute with scoring, and I’m proud of how our girls played tonight,” Detwiler said. “They played good team ball.”

Game notes: Gorsuch and Gerwert both collected a game-high five rebounds … Bellwood-Antis plays a non-conference game at Central Mountain Wednesday night. Williamsburg hosts Moshannon Valley in an Inter-Conference matchup Thursday night in which all military veterans will be admitted to the game free of charge as part of Williamsburg’s Salute to Service Night.

BELLWOOD-ANTIS (36): Clapper 3 1-2 9, Norton 1 0-0 2, Gerwert 6 1-3 14, Cacciotti 2 2-4 7, Waite 1 2-4 4, Plummer 0 0-0, Campbell 0 0-0 0. Totals – 13 6-13 36.

WILLIAMSBURG (64): Royer 10 3-5 26, Ranalli 5 0-1 10, Gorsuch 4 2-2 10, Prough 2 0-0 5, Kagarise 2 1-2 6, A. Colbert 2 1-2 5, G. Colbert 1 0-0 2, Alexander 0 0-0 0, Rispoli 0 0-0 0, Flaig 0 0-0 0. Totals – 26 7-12 64.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bellwood-Antis 6 14 8 8–36

Williamsburg 27 15 16 6–64

3-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 4 (Clapper 2, Gerwert, Cacciotti); Williamsburg 5 (Royer 3, Prough, Kagarise).

Records: Bellwood-Antis (3-2); Williamsburg (5-1).

Officials: Bill Pfeffer, Craig Andros, Kevin Laird.

JV: No game.