By Lee Goodwin
DALLASTOWN – The Greencastle-Antrim girls’ basketball team entered Saturday’s PIAA tournament first-round game against Audenried Charter as a favorite.The Blue Devils — the District 3-AAA champions — didn’t disappoint.
After a slow start by both teams, G-A finally settled down against a very physical, defensive minded Rocket team that struggled putting the ball in the basket and fell, 55-33 to the faster, offensive minded Blue Devils.
G-A will play fellow District 3 Berks Catholic in the Round of 16 on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Cumberland Valley High School. Berks Catholic defeated Pope John Paul II, 63-57.
“A win’s a win, and we’ll see what happens Wednesday,” said G-A coach Mike Rhine after the game. “It was a very rugged game, a very unorthodox style. They tried trapping us and we didn’t get into a rhythm. We had some fast breaks and Jane (Herman) really carried us in the second half.”
Herman scored a game-high 20 points, including the Blue Devils’ only two 3-point shots of the game. Hannah Crist finished with 12 points, with eight of them coming from the free throw line. Jenay Faulkner posted 10 points and Katie Gelsinger scored nine points.
“It’s great. We got one down. Sixteen teams are left. The next game is a new game. It’ll be a fresh start for us. We will get working on film,” Rhine said. “I’m a little disappointed we didn’t play better, but they had a lot to do with it. They forced a lot of turnovers, and not playing in a week didn’t help. We only had two practices because of the snow, but we got through it.”
Audenried led 2-0 on a field goal by Denijsha Wilson. The points came after nearly a half period of scoreless play. But the Blue Devils answered with a 13-0 run starting with three straight field goals from Faulkner. Herman got into the scoring act next and Crist made a traditional three-point play. Gelsinger capped the scoring in the first quarter to give G-A a 13-2 lead, and the Blue Devils would never look back.G-A continued to pull away in the second quarter, spacing things out on offense and working the ball around the perimeter against a tight trap defense on the ball handler.
In spite of turnovers and missed shots, the Blue Devils took advantage of poor shooting by the Rockets and were able to penetrate into the lane for relatively easy shots, but not without drawing plenty of contact on the way to the basket or on the way down the court
After Wilson scored Audenried’s second field goal and then made a free throw, G-A scored the next eight points to take a 29-10 lead before the Rockets scored the final four points on free throws by Deja McKinney and a McKinney field goal to make the score 29-14.
That’s as close as Audenried got in the game as the Blue Devils expanded on the lead in the second half. It was 39-18 after a Faulkner field goal and 44-25 at the end of the third quarter as Crist converted another conventional three-point play.
NOTES: Five of the seen District 3 teams that qualified for the state tournament advanced to the second round on Saturday. Third-place West York beat District 2 runner up North Pocono, 64-51. District 3 runner up Conrad Weiser defeated District 4 runner up Athens, 48-36. Berks Catholic, the fifth-place entry from District 3, topped District 1 runner up Pope John Paul II, 63-57, and West Perry, which finished fourth in District 3, defeated District 6 champion Forest Hills, 45-27. The Mustangs will play McGuffey, the seventh place team from District 7, which upset D7 runner up South Fayette, 59-46. . . Of the 16 teams remaining in the state playoffs, five are from District 3, four are from District 7, two each are from Districts 12 and 2 and one each from Districts 11, 10 and 1. . . Two games feature matchups of teams from the same district – G-A vs. Berks Catholic and Chartiers Valley vs. Beaver (District 7). . . There are also two potential quarterfinal games (one guartanteed) featuring teams from the same district: G-A/Berks Catholic winner vs. West Perry and Blackhawk vs. either Chartiers Valley or Beaver. . . Beaver upset District 10 champion Villa Maria, 34-33, while Chartiers Valley surprised District 9 champion Punxsutawney, 33-14.
