By Ben Destefan

Greencastle-Antrim's Hannah Crist (13) shoots over Berks Catholic's Devon Merritt (42) while teammate Katie Gelsinger (15) looks on during Wednesday's PIAA second-round playoff game at Cumberland Valley High School.

MECHANICSBURG — It will be referenced as the season that set the standard for a now-accomplished program.

Like most good things, however, it too had to end.

Facing a tall order, literally and figuratively, Greencastle-Antrim’s history-making run met its match Wednesday night in the second round of the PIAA Girls’ Basketball Championship, falling short to Berks Catholic 53-45 at Cumberland Valley High School.

The loss brings the Blue Devils’ tremendous campaign to a close with a final record of 25-4, while the win sends the Saints (23-6) to the Class AAA state quarterfinals on Saturday against West Perry.

“I could not be more proud of these girls,” G-A head coach Mike Rhine said. “They never thought they were going to lose. I love these kids, we just didn’t want it to end.”

Leading 17-15 at halftime, G-A weathered a 10-2 blitz by Berks to open the third quarter, battling back to enter the fourth tied at 33.

Following a strong finish by Katie Gelsinger to put the Blue Devils up 37-36 with a little more than four minutes to play, the Saints’ experience came to the forefront down the stretch.

A near-miraculous bucket by Courtney Wensel backed by a 3 from Haley Kubinak jump-started Berks’ decisive 11-2 surge, quickly turning a 1-point deficit into a 47-39 lead with less than two minutes to play.

Despite cutting it to four on a pair of Jane Herman free throws with 1:03 remaining, time ultimately ran out on the Blue Devils’ remarkable winter.

“They had a good end-of-game routine, and we knew that, because they’ve done it so many times,” Rhine said of the Saints, who shot 7-of-8 from the charity stripe in the fourth. “We didn’t want to get to that, but we did, and they have a lot of really good players over there.”

Listed at 6-foot-2, Devon Merritt was the Saints’ difference maker in the second half, netting 15 of her 18 points in the closing two quarters. Wensel added 12 points for Berks while the Saints owned a 34-23 edge in rebounding, utilizing their size in the paint.

Jenay Faulkner matched Merritt’s game-high 18 points to pace G-A, including 10 in the third quarter to offset Berks’ sizzling second-half start. Gelsinger registered 12 points for the District 3 champions followed by 10 from Hannah Crist, posting three Blue Devils in double figures.

“We didn’t have many easy baskets,” Rhine acknowledged. “Give them credit, they’re big, they’re strong and they’re fast. We tried to go inside and missed a couple easy ones there. I thought we had a lot of good 3 looks, but we just didn’t make many of them.”

For the night, G-A shot just 4-of-21 from long range, an area that was a strength throughout the year.

The Saints — who entered the tournament as the fifth seed from District 3 — set the tone early, scoring the game’s first six points before a 3 from Crist put G-A on the board with 3:54 to play in the opening frame.

Doing a nice job defending Berks’ frequent lob attempts inside, the Blue Devils crept within two before a Faulkner make from beyond the arc granted G-A its first lead midway through the second quarter.

After the Saints drew even at 15, a textbook left-hander by Gelsinger gave the Blue Devils a slim cushion heading to the locker room, an advantage that quickly vanished in the first two minutes of the third.

“I told our girls that was a very important juncture of the game,” Rhine said regarding the start of the second half. “We overcame that, actually came back and got the lead. Then all of a sudden, on back-to-back possessions, we go from a 1-point lead to down four, which we never managed to come back from.”

Of the eight remaining teams in Class AAA, three represent District 3, including Berks, West Perry and Conrad Weiser, who lost to G-A in the district title game on Feb. 28.