Greencastle girls basketball clinches another Colonial Division title

For the fifth time in the last 6 years the Mid Penn Colonial Division championship belongs to the Greencastle-Antrim Lady Blue Devils girls basketball team.

The Lady Blue Devils put together a fourth quarter rally to slide past the home James Buchanan Lady Rockets, 43-38 Tuesday night.

The victory improves Greencastle’s record to 13-6 and earns the Lady Blue Devils a ticket to the Mid Penn Conference tournament. The win also helped solidify G-A’s spot in the District 3 Class 5A playoffs as it is currently is in 14th and the top 16 advance.

James Buchanan (10-9) led by as many 7 points in the second half, but the Lady Blue Devils defense clamped down, especially in the fourth quarter, and their offense came up with some clutch shots.

The Lady Rockets led 30-27 to start the fourth quarter, but G-A’s Lydia Crist drained a 3-pointer to tie the game briefly as 2 straight Blue Devil turnovers resulted in layups by Reilly Heinbaugh and Hannah Kimmel to put JB ahead 34-30 with 6:21 remaining.

That however would be the Lady Rockets last lead and points for the next 4 minutes. During that span the Blue Devils scored 9 unanswered points, including 6 by Ashley True, and their defense forced JB into 3 turnovers and 0-for-3 shooting from the field.

“We got flustered,” JB coach Jenny Lauthers said. “Greencastle is a well coached team and has more and better experience in close games. We rushed some things and Greencastle made some nice shots.”

JB’s  leading scorer (16 points/game) and rebounder (12) Cass Martin missed a majority of the game due to sickness.

“It hurt not having Cass, but she had been pretty sick all day,” Lauthers said. “We did have a lot of other players come together and have a good game.”

Greencastle’s McKenna Rakaczweski led all scorers with 17 points, including 7 in the first quarter. Crist also reached double figures for G-A with 11 points.

Alyssa Blair was the lone JB scorer to reach double figures with 11 points.

The Lady Rockets have 3 remaining games, but this loss may have ended their postseason hopes. JB sits in 13th place in the District 3 Class 4A rankings and only the top 10 advance.

“This is a tough one because we really needed it,” Lauthers said.