MECHANICSBURG — Greencastle-Antrim played right with No. 4 seed Mechanicsburg for more than three quarters of their District 3 Class 5A boys basketball playoff game Monday night.

But the Wildcats outscored the No. 13 seeded Blue Devils 15-9 down the stretch to capture a 52-44 victory at home.

Adam Horst

Greencastle finishes 13-9; Mechanicsburg (17-6) hosts Warwick (16-6), a winner over Donegal, in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

“Mechanicsburg is a great team and they played really well tonight,” Greencastle coach Todd Stephens said. “I’m very proud of our guys for their effort. They did everything we asked them to do to the best of their abilities and played for each other.”

A 15-11 lead by the Blue Devils at the end of the first quarter was the largest lead for either team until the last few minutes. Adam Horst scored two buckets and Surzano Solomon had one for G-A to account for the last six points of that period.

Greencastle held a 22-21 edge at halftime, with Solomon feeding Horst off of a drive for the final basket.

In the third quarter, the teams combined for only 17 points total, but two more Solomon-to-Horst assists kept G-A in it and the teams were tied 30-30 with 8 minutes to go.

A rebound basketball by Josh Smith and a free throw for a three-point play gave the Wildcats a 35-31 lead with 6:53 left in the fourth, and a bucket by Seth Brubaker made it 37-31.

Greencastle fought back on a reverse layup by Conner Wright and a drive by Eli Sterling to pull within 37-35.

But Brubaker then scored on a fast break after a blocked shot, the Blue Devils missed two free throws and Chase Yanoski dropped in a killer 3-pointer for a 42-35 lead.

The Wildcats made 7 of 12 foul shots in the quarter to not allow G-A to creep closer than six points.

Horst led the Blue Devils with 12 points, Sterling scored 10 and Solomon added 9.

For Mechanicsburg, Smith led with 19 and Yanoski totaled 16.

Stephens said, “We will miss our four seniors (Horst, Jackson Eby, Blake Shadoan and Brenden Shadoan) and the leadership they gave us both on and off the court. This was a great group of guys and they were a pleasure to coach this year.”

Mechanicsburg 52, Greencastle 44
GREENCASTLE
Eli Sterling 4 2-4 10, Surzano Solomon 4 0-0 9, Logan Alvey 2 2-2 7, Jordan Hunt 0 0-0 0, Adam Horst 6 0-0 12, Conner Wright 2 0-0 4. Blake Shadoan 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 4-6 44.
MECHANICSBURG
Chase Yanoski 5 4-6 16, Josh Smith 5 7-9 19, Spencer Nolan 3 0-1 7, Justin Bardo 2 0-0 4, Nathan Bardo 0 0-0 0, Seth Brubaker 3 0-1 6. Totals 18 11-17 52.
Greencastle                  15      7    8    14    —    44
Mechanicsburg           11    10    9    22    —    52
3-point shots — GA 2 (Solomon, Alvey); Mech 5 (Yanoski 2, Smith 2, Nolan).