(Bob Stoler)Greencastle-Antrim's Jenay Faulkner (4) is defended by Cumberland Valley's Kelly Jekot (left) and Morgan Baughman (24) during Tuesday's semifinal game of the Mid-Penn Conference tournament at Big Spring High School.


By Ben Destefan
Posted Feb. 12, 2014 @ 10:30 am
 

NEWVILLE — The unbeaten streak is over.

Even so, in terms of the big picture, nothing changed.

The Greencastle-Antrim girls' basketball team was dealt its first loss of the season Tuesday night, falling to Cumberland Valley, 59-34, in the semifinals of the Mid-Penn Conference tournament at Big Spring High School.

In many ways, the Blue Devils (21-1) were beat at their own game, as the Eagles (19-4) pressured G-A into uncharacteristic mistakes while utilizing a wealth of scoring depth to pull away for the 25-point victory.

Still, despite struggling against the top-ranked Class AAAA team in the state, the Blue Devils have the opportunity to grow from the experience in preparation for next week's District 3-AAA playoffs.

"I'm disappointed for the girls, seeing the streak come to an end," G-A head coach Mike Rhine said. "We lost to a very good team tonight, but the reality is, it's not over. We have the opportunity to get back up, dust ourselves off and play another game. The key is to use tonight to our benefit moving forward."

The lights of the big stage appeared a little too bright for G-A in the early goings, with CV establishing a 14-3 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Beginning to shake the nerves, the Blue Devils remained within 10 at the half (24-14), outscoring the Eagles 11-10 in the second quarter.

Turnovers and rebounding issues played a large role in the double-digit deficit, with G-A turning it over 10 times in the opening half and relinquishing frequent second-chance putbacks to the taller Eagles.

"I feel like we didn't maximize the opportunities they gave us early," Rhine explained. "We missed a lot of shots and we didn't rebound. Against a team like that, you have to capitalize."

G-A's most-promising sequence came immediately after the break, when Jenay Faulkner drained a 3-pointer from the top of the arc before adding a nice drive and finish on the next possession, cutting CV's lead to 24-19 with seven minutes remaining in the third.

Paced by a trio of makes by Morgan Baughman, the Eagles caught fire from long-range to abruptly regain command, knocking down a total of five 3's in the frame to extend the margin to 17 entering the fourth.

"We got it to five in the third, which was about as well as it had gone all night," Rhine said. "Then they answered by hitting just about everything they looked at to string it back out to 13 or 14 just like that. It kind of snowballed on us from there."

Continuing to create open looks against the Blue Devil defense, CV added to its cushion in the fourth, outscoring G-A 18-10 while advancing to Thursday's conference championship game against Mechanicsburg, who defeated Middletown 51-35 Tuesday night.

"The game plan was to save as much energy as possible early, so we could pick it up down the stretch," Rhine explained. "Their aggressiveness didn't allow us to do that. We tried going man-to-man and press a little, but by that time, our girls were spent. Then with Baughman catching fire, there just wasn't much more we could do."

Baughman led the Eagles with 17 points off the bench followed by 14 points and 11 rebounds from Kelly Jekot.

Faulkner was the only Blue Devil to reach double figures, netting a game-high 20 points followed by seven from Chloe Hoover.

G-A is tentatively scheduled to travel to Delone Catholic for a make-up game on Saturday before opening the District 3-AAA playoffs as the No. 3 seed at home against 14th-seeded Gettysburg on Feb. 19.