Shooting woes plague G-A in Dist. 3 loss to Red Land

By Ed Gotwals on 2/20/24

 

GREENCASTLE — When you break down the game of basketball, it all comes down to putting the ball into the basket.

Greencastle-Antrim’s girls basketball team found that task very difficult to accomplish Tuesday night in a District 3 Class 5A first-round playoff game at home against Red Land.

 

Haley Noblit

 

In fact, the Blue Devils managed to make only 10 baskets in 53 attempts, which is a shooting percentage of 18.8%. That makes it very tough to win.

 

The No. 11-seeded Patriots took advantage of G-A’s shooting problems to capture a 43-36 victory. Red Land (12-11) will play at No. 3 seed Northern York (22-2) on Friday in a quarterfinal game. Greencastle finishes with a 15-7 record.

 

Blue Devil coach Mike Rhine summed up the game this way: “Some nights, the ball just doesn’t go in.”

 

Greencastle connected on just 5-of-27 attempts on 3-point shots, and Kylie Kerns hit four of them. G-A also found it extremely hard to score at the basket, missing numerous drives and shots under the hoop.

 

“10-for-53 just doesn’t cut it,” Rhine said. “We tried everything — we attacked the basket, we had post plays, we tried kick-out threes — but we were just stone cold. I thought we got plenty of good shots, but we could not put the ball in the basket.”

 

Senior Haley Noblit put on a show in the first period for G=A, scoring 12 of her team’s 14 points as the Blue Devils ran out to a 14-5 lead. She had steals and baskets on the Patriots’ final two possessions of the quarter.

 

But Red Land defended her much better after that, holding her to jut 7 more points. The problem for Greencastle was that other than Noblit’s 19 points and Kerns’ 12 points on 3-pointers, the rest of the team totaled only 5 points.

 

The Patriots put together a 9-0 run in the second quarter to get back to striking distance. To finish the third, Summer Emlet (20 points) and Kayla Kirkpatrick each it a 3-pointer and Karli DiCosta hit a layup to give Red Land the lead for good at 32-28.

 

A 3-pointer from Ainsley Swindell and a Noblit free throw got G-A within 34-32 early in the fourth, but a baseline jumper from Emlet and a layup by DiCosta with 3:25 left gave the Patriots a safe lead.

 

“We had a good start, but they’re the type of team that gives us problems,” Rhine said. “And once we started missing some shots, you start to press a little.

 

“I’m going to miss these girls. They gave us everything they had, including that (District 3) gold medal last year.”