G-A girls upset by Lower Dauphin in quarterfinals

by Ed Gotwals on 2/25/22

REENCASTLE — Lower Dauphin pulled a little bit of a surprise for Greencastle-Antrim at the defensive end and it proved to be a difference maker.

Mia Libby

The Falcons, normally a man-to-man team, switched to a zone and caused the Blue Devils to have an off shooting night in a District 3 Class 5A girls quarterfinal basketball game Friday night at G-A, and it resulted in a 50-41 victory.

Greencastle (19-4) will now play Tuesday in a consolation game, hosting Lampeter-Strasburg (15-9) at 7 p.m. The winner will play for fifth place and the loser will play for seventh. Lower Dauphin (15-9) plays at Gettysburg (20-5) in a semifinal on Tuesday.

“We weren’t sure of our game plan,” G-A coach Mike Rhine said. “Normally, they are a hard-nosed man-to-man team, but they played a 3-2 zone and really guarded the perimeter well. We tried to attack inside, but they played an incredible game.”

The Blue Devils had a rough shooting night, hitting 15 of 51 shot attempts (29%) and connected on only 6 of 29 (21%) from 3-point land.

Rylee Henson sank three 3-pointers in the opening quarter and G-A led 11-9. It was still a two-point lead at halftime, but LD pulled ahead by one after three periods and won the last quarter, 15-7. In the fourth, the Falcons made 10 of 14 free throws.

Rhine said, “We had a 26-21 lead after Haley (Noblit) hit a three, and I thought if we could get a stop and a basket, it’d be a three-possession game. But they came down and hit a three, too. That No. 14 (Justice Hollenbach) had a phenomenal game (19 points). She made a lot of really huge baskets.”

For Greencastle, Mia Libby scored 11 points and had 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Henson had 10 points, Lauren Pool had 6 points and grabbed 10 boards and Noblit added 4 assists with her 8 points. Shaina Overcash also contributed 6 points.

“This is one of my favorite teams,” Rhine said. “They always come out ready to play and play so hard. But we shoot a lot of threes and sometimes they don’t go in, so you have to make it up somewhere. To their credit, they didn’t let us make it up anywhere else. They have a lot of seniors who played under control and they just outplayed us tonight.”