Shippensburg boys upend Greencastle
There's a couple of things Greencastle-Antrim's boys basketball team does very well.
For one, it plays an uptempo game that creates havoc for opposing offenses and easy transition buckets for the Blue Devils.
Two, G-A has one of the best 2-3 zone defenses in the area.
But Tuesday night, Shippensburg figured out both of those elements, and by doing so, the Greyhounds secured a 59-56 victory to hand G-A its first Mid Penn Colonial Division loss of the season.
"We definitely wanted to attack their press and see if we could get things on our end," Ship coach Ray Staver said. "We turned the ball over a few times against it, but other times, we scored off of it. The second half was very much a slow-down game."
It was nip-and-tuck all night long, but Greencastle (14-6, 11-1 MPC) started to run away with it midway through the third quarter.
The Blue Devils hit three straight 3-pointers and led 46-39 late in the third, but from there, the Hounds managed to chip away at it by starting to slice through G-A's 2-3 zone.
"Big thing coach was talking about in practice all week was penetration in their zone," Ship's Adam Houser said. "We needed to be able to kick out to our shooters; that was a big part of it."
Ship once again got big performances from Cody Gustafson (22 points) and Carter Van Scyoc (20), but a key 3-pointer from Alaric Hickman in the third and a late and-one by Brady Kuhn helped secure the comeback.
"First of all, Gustafson handles the ball very well, and he's very quick, so he handled our pressure well," G-A coach Rick Lewis said. "They made some adjustments against our zone, and unfortunately when you lose Brandon (Stuhler) for a big chuck (to foul trouble), he creates a lot of our offense through his defense."
Staver said, "We made some big plays to get the lead, and I thought we really played good man-to-man defense in the fourth quarter."
After the final buzzer sounded, Ship exploded in celebration.
"Even though they were undefeated and we can't win the division anymore, it was a big thing for us to be able to come back and beat them," Houser said. "Especially in a close game like and how they had their student section, it was great to be able to come out with a win."
The loss sets up a paramount meeting with Waynesboro (14-6, 9-2 MPC) on Friday night. While G-A has already clinched a share of the Colonial Division crown, a loss to 'Boro would mean a title split.
"Well, we definitely want to win it out-right," Lewis said. "We put ourselves in position to get a mulligan, we took it, and now we tee it up again on Friday. It's gonna be a great environment, so we'll have to rise to the occasion and play well. I expect Waynesboro's best shot."