Big Spring pulls away from Greencastle-Antrim

By Ben Destefan

GREENCASTLE -- Greencastle-Antrim’s inexperience proved costly throughout the second half of Tuesday’s girls’ basketball game against Big Spring. Trailing by just four at the break, the Blue Devils were held to only six points in the closing two quarters while routinely turning the ball over, culminating in a 46-21 Mid-Penn Colonial Division loss to the visiting Bulldogs.

Big Spring was tenacious defensively, pressuring the Blue Devils into a slew of mistakes when trying to bring the ball up the floor. Greencastle also could not buy a bucket after halftime, managing just two field goals in the final 16 minutes of play.

“We played well in the first half, and then they were clearly the better team from there,” G-A head coach Mike Rhine said. “You’re not going to win games scoring six points in a half and turning the ball over at will. They’re a good team with a lot of seniors and we really struggled against the press. Hopefully we’ll learn from it and get better.”

The Blue Devils (4-4) hung tough early, as lay-ins by McKenna Rakaczewski and Ashley Noblit cut Greencastle’s deficit to 8-7 at the end of the first quarter. Big Spring (6-2) pushed its margin to 19-15 by halftime before the Bulldogs truly began separating themselves in the third.

After falling behind by 15, Lydia Crist knocked down a 3 at the buzzer to account for G-A’s only points of the quarter, sending the Blue Devils to the fourth trailing 30-18. The script was similar in the final frame, as another 3 from Crist served as Greencastle’s lone basket of the eight-minute stanza.

“We felt pretty good being down just four at half, but we panicked with the ball after that,” Rhine said. “We needed to relax and we didn’t. You’ll have some games like this as part of the learning process. The key is we must improve moving forward.”

Lauryn Cunningham paced Big Spring with 15 points in the win, headlined by 10 in the second half. Madison Bishop followed with nine points while Megan Emlet added seven.

Crist scored 10 points for Greencastle followed by five from Rakaczewski.

The Blue Devils return to action Friday at Shippensburg before making the trip to Northeastern York for a non-league contest on Saturday.