JAMES CITY — The state championship dream for Manor High’s girls basketball team revived in a Portsmouth Circuit Court is alive and well.

The state tournament berth Warhill’s girls thought they’d earned on the basketball court has evaporated.

That’s the bracket skinny of the Mustangs’ 89-45 win over the Lions in the Class 4 Region A semifinals on Wednesday at Warhill. Manor (22-1) moves on to the Class 4 state tournament via the win, and will host its quarterfinal on Saturday if it beats Hampton (19-5) on Thursday in the region final at 6 p.m. in the Crabbers’ gym.

Wednesday’s outcome for Manor — much like the ruling by Judge Brenda Spry on Monday that made it possible — was jubilation. To their credit the Lions (17-5) handled the loss, and the bizarre circumstances leading up to it, with a maturity the coach, Norman “Bingo” Brungot, will always remember fondly.

To recap an already heavily publicized controversy, Manor’s now-former athletic director reported to the Virginia High School League what he thought was the team’s use of an ineligible player in the tournament quarterfinal win over Gloucester. Manor’s victory was forfeited by the VHSL and Gloucester was declared the winner and placed in the semifinal against Warhill.

Warhill defeated Gloucester 56-31 to initially earn one of the region’s two state tournament berths. Hampton earned the other by beating Grafton in a semifinal.

But, when Spry vacated the Manor player’s ineligibility and the Mustangs’ forfeit during a hearing in the 3rd Judicial Court of Virginia on Monday — citing, in effect, a lack of due process for the Manor player and her guardian — Manor was back in the tournament.

That nullified the Lions’ win over Gloucester, and their state tournament berth. It meant they’d play the semifinal again, this time against Manor with the state tournament spot on the line.

As expected, the game was a mismatch and Manor won easily. Ca’Asia Brown, gave the Mustangs a quick 5-0 lead and would go on to score 25 points. Freshman sensation Jha’Ziya Babb finished with 23 points.

The outcome confirmed the Mustangs’ status as a state championship contender.

“The grind doesn’t stop until the goal is achieved,” Brown said. “That’s the state championship ring.”

The Warhill girls will have to watch the state tournament, but will be remembered for handling disappointment while showing not a trace of bitterness.

“It was tough,” Warhill senior Taleah James said. “I feel like we all got excited about the hard work we put in, and then it was ripped away from us in a split second.

“Coach Brungot has taught well how to control what we can and handle what we can handle.”

D’Shela Walker, who scored a team-high 19 points said, “We’ve faced a lot of adversity and I feel like Coach Brungot teaches us in times like this to go through adversity and still play together as a team.”

Brungot expressed pride in his girls, who had won 11 consecutive games before facing vastly more-talented Manor.

“They were put in a tough situation,” he said.  “When teenagers hear that they’ve earned something by playing who they were told to play, and winning those games, then getting (to the state tournament), and then they say ‘Oh, you’ve got to play another game to get where you were already told you’re going,’ that’s hard.

“I allowed them to be upset, and then when they came to practice the next day, I said, `It’s time to turn the page.’ All we could control is how we practice, control how we play and control how we act.

“My girls handled it as best as they could and they kept their heads up. They made us proud.”