GIRLS BASKETBALL
Greencastle-Antrim 66, Big Spring 49: The Blue Devils finished their regular season with a bang Friday night at home, avenging an earlier defeat to the Bulldogs.
Rylee Henson
Greencastle finished the regular season with an 18-3 record, and 12-2 in the Colonial. Big Spring is now 16-4 (12-1 MPC) and can wrap up the division title if it can beat Shippensburg next week.
“There’s something about playing a Friday night game at home,” G-A coach Mike Rhine said. “It was special — it was packed and it was as loud as I’ve heard it for awhile. We got zeroed in.”
Greencastle gained some revenge for a one-point defeat at Big Spring in January in which a scoring error took away one point.
The Blue Devils got off to a brilliant start Friday thanks to the 3-point sniping of Rylee Henson, who drained her first three long-range shots to help G-A go ahead 11-1. Haley Noblit added another triple to push the lead to 14-1.
But the Bulldogs then scored the next 13 points to knot the game at 14-14 early in the second period. Another 3-pointer by Noblit made it 17-14 and Greencastle never trailed again. Big Spring kept it close, trailing only 35-32 in the third, but G-A scored 8 of the final 12 points of the period to take a 45-26 lead into the final quarter. Two free throws by Noblit, a 3-pointer from the corner by Mia Libby, another Henson bomb and a beautiful drive through the middle of the Bulldogs’ defense by Libby that beat the buzzer created that lead.
Rhine said, “We played very good defense in the second half. We didn’t make any real adjustments; the kids just reacted better with our defense against Laney Norieka in the lane. We played a sagging man-to-man, but with Haley and Mia on the ball, that still creates pressure.”
Greencastle kept it going to open the fourth, as Libby bagged another three from the same corner and Shaina Overcash hit one from the other side to raise the lead to 51-36 with 6:00 left. The closest Big Spring could get after that was 10 points and a Henson 3-pointer with about 1:50 remaining just about sealed it.
Henson unglued the Bulldogs’ defense by hitting six 3-pointers in just seven attempts for her career-high 18 points. Noblit (18 points) and Libby (17 points) each hit a pair of threes and were able to drive the lane several times.
“That’s probably the most uncontested layups we’ve ever had against Big Spring,” Rhine said. “Maybe it was because we were hitting threes (10-for-18 in the game) and it opened it up, or because those two girls are just so fast.”
Blake Shadoan
BOYS BASKETBALL
Big Spring 91, Greencastle-Antrim 74: The lid was definitely off the basket Friday night in Newville — the teams combined for an incredible 32 baskets from 3-point range.
The Bulldogs hit for 18 of them, including 6 for Matthew Ward and 5 for Jake Knouse. The Blue Devils made 14, with Logan Alvey and Blake Shadoan connecting on 6 each.
Greencastle, playing without leading scorer Conner wright, fell behind the hot-shooting Bulldogs 56-33 by halftime, then outscored Big Spring 41-35 in the second half. The Bulldogs sank 7 threes in the first quarter alone.
Shadoan scored a career-high 21 points and Alvey also hit his career high with 18 points. Eli Sterling contributed 13 points for the Blue Devils (7-14), who finished the Colonial season with a 4-10 record.
For the Bulldogs (13-7), Ward scored 30 points, Knouse had 29 and Aiden Sallie and Tucker Lowery had 16 each. Though they scored 91 points, only those four players had points.
Big Spring 91, Greencastle
GREENCASTLE
Bobby Emberson 0 0-0 0, Jackson Eby 1 0-0 2, Eli Sterling 5 3-3 13, Surzano Solomon 2 0-0 4, Logan Alvey 6 0-0 18, Ethan Shank 2 0-0 6, Blake Shadoan 9 3-4 21, Brendon Shadoan 0 0-0 0, Jackson Wright 1 0-2 2, Andrew Kerns 1 0-0 2. Totals 27 6-9 74.
BIG SPRING
Matthew Ward 11 2-3 30, Aiden Sallie 4 4-4 16, Trevor Richwine 0 0-1 0, Jake Knouse 10 4-6 29, Tucker Lowery 6 1-2 16. Totals 31 11-16 91.
Greencastle 17 16 19 22 — 74
Big Spring 31 25 15 20 — 91
3-point shots — GA 14 (Alvey 6, B.Shadoan 6, Shank 2); BS 18 (Ward 6, Knouse 5, Sallie 4, Lowery 3).