Chambersburg 54, Greencastle 39
Behind a dominant performance by the dynamic duo of Taylor Vrabel and Ashley Adams, the Chambersburg Lady Trojans came away with a victory in the championship game of the Franklin County Tip-Off Tournament, defeating the Greencastle-Antrim Lady Blue Devils 54-39.
From the moment the game tipped off, Adams and Vrabel went to work against a Greencastle defense that couldn’t seem to find an answer for the duo. Adams, who was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, was a force on the offensive glass, finishing with 16 points, many of which were generated by the forward’s activity on the boards.
“I feel like Taylor is definitely the size aspect of our team,” Adams said, “She’s over 6’0 and I’m 5’10 but I just have a good vertical. I feel like while we do present the challenge of our height, we’re just really tough players and we play aggressive and don’t let up. The entire team really came through and played great together and we just really wanted to play a good game for our coach and for Chambersburg basketball because we know this is big for us.”
Vrabel, who was named to the All-Tournament team along with Adams, was also unstoppable in the paint, scoring from the post with ease and finishing with 17 points on the night.
“We’ve got to use it,” Chambersburg head coach Barry Purvis said of his team’s height advantage, “That’s what we have. We’ve got some guards too but its hard for other teams to match up against both girls inside that play as hard as they [Adams and Vrabel] do. Our girls have a lot more confidence in what we’re trying to get done this year.”
Greencastle came out of the half and made adjustments to prevent Chambersburg from dumping the ball into the team’s bigs, including a full-court press that gave the Lady Trojans a little bit of trouble. The Blue Devils ended up winning the second half, outscoring Chambersburg 25-22 in the third and fourth quarters, but the damage had already been done in the first half and Greencastle wasn’t able to mount a comeback.
“I told the girls, next time you play against someone that big, it won’t be your first time,” Blue Devils head coach Mike Rhine said, “There’s nothing like getting over the first time and we learned that on the fly. We got it down to 11 at one point but they’re just a better team than us right now and I can live with that. Hopefully we’ll get better by the time we play them after Christmas.”
Greencastle was lead in scoring by Ashley True, who knocked down some tough jumpers and set her teammates up for easy looks on her way to 14 points on the night. Also providing the Blue Devils with scoring were Ashley Noblit, who finished with eight points, and Lydia Crist, who finished with six points and was also named to the All-Tournament team.
