NEWVILLE >> Forget about that late-season slump — it's business as usual for the Cumberland Valley girls basketball team in the postseason.
Sophomore Morgan Baughman netted a career-high 17 points off the bench and the Lady Eagles upended the previously unbeaten Greencastle-Antrim Blue Devils 59-34 on Tuesday in the semifinals of the Mid Penn Conference tournament at Big Spring H.S.
"I was pleased with our effort," Cumberland Valley coach Bill Wolf said. "We didn't shoot the ball as well as maybe we could have, but overall we played well."
Kelly Jekot scored 14 points and Madison Torresin added 11 for CV, which plays Mechanicsburg in Thursday's final at Milton Hershey High School at 6.
Jenay Faulkner had a game-high 20 points, including 13 in the second half, for the Blue Devils (21-1), who travel to Delone on Saturday for a makeup game before hosting No. 14 Gettysburg in the opening round of the District 3 Class AAA playoffs on Wednesday.
Chloe Hoover added seven points and seven rebounds for Greencastle, but no other player had more than five as the Blue Devils shot 28.9 percent (13-of-45) from the field and made just 6 of 16 free throws.
"The speed of the game was a big factor," G-A coach Mike Rhine said. "You have to do everything a little faster, you have to do everything a little bit more precisely. They're big and they're fast and they know what to do. When you watch them on tape, you scramble to get a game plan. But whatever you come up with, it always comes back to limiting their transition — you have to keep them off the board."
Cumberland Valley (19-4), which rebounded from two straight losses, ended the 21-game winning streak of the upstart Blue Devils.
Wolf said, "That's what we talked about in the locker room. I said, 'Hey, they have a really nice team, but we'll be the best team that they will have seen this year.' Intimidating is not the word, but when you go out and for the first time you're playing against the best team and now here it is in a playoff situation, it can be kind of unnerving. But I thought they handled our pressure really well, and then it was a 10-point game at halftime, so give them credit."
The Eagles roared to a 14-3 lead, kept the pressure on and led 24-14 at the break. Meanwhile, Greencastle shot just 25 percent in the first half. Faulkner was 3 of 9 in the first 16 minutes, but the rest of the team shot 3-for-15.
The Blue Devils trimmed the deficit to 24-19 early in the third on a 3-pointer and a layup by Faulkner, but a 17-5 run by Cumberland Valley gave the Lady Eagles a 41-24 lead and put the game out of reach. Baughman had three 3-pointers during the decisive spurt.
Wolf said, "Morgan hit some big shots when we really needed it because the game had gotten tight. She ended up giving us a big spark and then we turned the corner and went from there."
CV shot 36.2 percent (25-of-69) overall and outrebounded G-A, 41-23, including 18 offensive rebounds.
"They gave us everything we expected," Faulkner said. "We knew they were going to come out hard and that we had to match their intensity. We did for a little while, but then I think we got tired. I believe if we would have come out stronger and if we would have put some more points on the board in the beginning that it would have been a closer game throughout. As it was, we had to fight our way back the whole time and that took so much effort."
Greencastle went almost five minutes without scoring while Cumberland Valley used an 8-0 run to surge in front 14-2.
Trailing 24-11 with 1:23 remaining in the first half, the Blue Devils pulled within 10 points on Katie Gelsinger's free throw and Faulkner's inside basket. Faulkner, who finished 7-of-19 from the floor, could have done more damage, but she missed seven of 12 free throws. The freshman also contributed eight rebounds and a pair of assists.
Rhine said, "Jenay stepped up and really did a nice job. She made a lot of nice plays, and you could tell that she enjoyed playing in this game. But I think she's a little upset that she didn't finish more shots."
