CLASS 3A

 

 

The Milton Hershey vs. Susquehanna Twp. prelim game should be fun; both teams can motor and put up a lot of points. Winner gets Northern Lebanon, the 2-seed.

 

The scuttlebutt in Mid-Penn circles the last couple of weeks was about avoiding West Perry in the first round. The Mustangs ended up drawing an L-L club: Rampaging Lancaster Catholic. West Perry beat the Crusaders a few years back on the way to winning 3A gold. The loser in the rematch is done.

 

We could potentially get a Lancaster Catholic vs. Northern Lebanon rematch in the quarterfinals; Crusaders handed the Vikings their only regular-season loss in an L-L crossover back on Jan. 13.

 

Fleetwood at Greencastle-Antrim jumps out; Tigers’ combo guard Lauren Lister can really get out and do damage in transition. We’ll see if G-A can curtail her — and if Fleetwood can defend the Blue Devils’ arsenal of arc shooters as G-A tries to defend its title.

 

Very early projection: Berks Catholic, Greencastle-Antrim, Lancaster Catholic and Bishop McDevitt get through.

 

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Cumb. Valley passes by Greencastle

 

NEWVILLE - When you play the Cumberland Valley girls basketball team, good luck trying to pick your poison when playing defense.

 

There's a lot of poison to go around.

 

In a Mid Penn Conference semifinal game Wednesday night at Big Spring, Greencastle-Antrim did what it could to limit the Jekot sisters, but Sarah Lehman was all too happy to take over the main scoring duties for the Eagles in a 70-36 victory over the Blue Devils.

 

Lehman scored 20 points on 10-for-15 shooting, which isn't surprising because every one of her 10 buckets was a layup.

 

"We thought we could score inside," CV coach Bill Wolf said. "We were trying to drive and then get that extra pass and Lehman was the recipient most of the time. We had a nice inside-outside game."

 

Greencastle coach Mike Rhine said, "I had a good seat to see an excellent team. It was like watching a clinic."

 

The Eagles (19-3), who will face Lower Dauphin on Thursday for the league title, had 28 baskets, and 20 were assisted. Most of the ones that weren't came on put-backs, thanks to a 38-24 advantage on the boards, including 15 offensive rebounds.

 

"I think they got the first eight rebounds of the game, and that kind of gets in your head," Rhine said.

 

The Blue Devils (20-2), who had a 16-game winning streak stopped, were still in the game with a 15-10 deficit, but Lehman scored on a put-back at the buzzer of the first period. To start the second, Katie Jekot nailed a 3-pointer and Kelly Jekot drove for a basket and it was 22-10.

 

Hannah Crist scored on back-to-back drives down the lane to bring Greencastle within 24-16, but Cumberland Valley scored 11 of the last 12 points of the half to go ahead 35-17, and that was that.

 

Crist said, "We knew how good they were, and we're still trying to adjust to having a new starter (Madison Sweitzer is still out with an injury). I think our offense was all right, but our defense needs some work. We held their stars down, but the others hurt us."

 

Katie Jekot scored 14 points and Kelly added 10, but they were a combined 8-for-31 from the field.

 

"What we need more than anything else is practice," Rhine said. "We had all those games in a row and I didn't want to play much man-to-man because we had to save ourselves. We tried it tonight, but our rotations weren't that good. Plus, their offense is just beautiful to watch."

 

Crist and Jenay Faulkner turned out to be the only options on offense for the Blue Devils. Faulker totaled 18 points and Crist had 13. The rest of the team was 2-for-17 from the field and Meghan Hirneisen's five points were the only points they scored.

 

Wolf said, "Greencastle has two excellent players in Faulkner and Crist. We needed to defend their outside shots and we know they're both very good at driving, too. I thought we did pretty well against them."

 

Notes: Faulkner and Hirneisen each had six rebounds for Greencastle, and Faulkner blocked four shots ... Morgan Baughman led CV with 13 boards, and added nine points ... The Eagles made only four turnovers, to 13 for G-A ... The Blue Devils are off until the first round of the District 3 Class AAA playoffs, when they host Fleetwood at 7 p.m. next Wednesday.