Greencastle-Antrim girls fall in 1st home game since 2013
It was a feeling no player on the Greencastle-Antrim girls basketball team had experienced before.
The Blue Devils had not lost at game on their home court since Feb. 1, 2013, when this year's senior class was in eighth grade. But 1,467 days later, that unbelievable streak came crumbling down in the final game of the 2016-17 regular season.
Tuesday, Greencastle fell to Susquehanna Township, 47-42, in a non-league game to close out the regular season on a not-so-high note, and with the postseason right around the corner, the Blue Devils must regroup after one of their toughest losses in recent memory.
"Everything good comes to an end," Greencastle coach Mike Rhine said. "We wanted to get through this season without any losses here, and it would have been nice to say that, but we have other things to worry about now."
From here the Blue Devils (18-4) head to the Mid Penn Conference tournament, then on to districts, and they will be facing some of the toughest competition they've seen so far this season. District 3's cutoff is Thursday, and pairings will be out by the weekend.
"This was a pretty close game and I think we are definitely going to face some harder competition, so I think we just have to keep working and learn from this game," G-A senior Lauren Cole said. "We watch the ball too much. We have to make sure we are boxing out and everyone is boxing out, not just one person."
Greencastle bounced back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 40 with four minutes to go. But as they had all game, the Blue Devils struggled on the boards, and allowed the Indians to forge ahead in the final minutes of the game.
Susquehanna Township out-rebounded Greencastle 30-22, and on top of a low shooting percentage - 36 percent from the field - not much was swaying in G-A's favor.
"Defensive rotations were not solid tonight and we didn't box out well, and a lot of possessions they got they had two or three tries, and we didn't get that," Rhine said. "We all were waiting for that run in the second half, and when the score got even, we thought, 'Here we go,' and I think everyone thought that, but we didn't convert on a couple key situations."
NOTES: Greencastle's Jenay Faulkner put up 21 points, and also had five steals, four assists and six rebounds to lead the team in every category. Lydia Crist added 11 for the Blue Devils ... The Indians were led by Lauren Pettis with 18 points and Treasure Johnson who had eight rebounds.