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MPC GIRLS: Cumb. Valley passes by Greencastle


NEWVILLE - When you play the Cumberland Valley girls basketball team, good luck trying to pick your poison when playing defense.

There's a lot of poison to go around.

In a Mid Penn Conference semifinal game Wednesday night at Big Spring, Greencastle-Antrim did what it could to limit the Jekot sisters, but Sarah Lehman was all too happy to take over the main scoring duties for the Eagles in a 70-36 victory over the Blue Devils.

Lehman scored 20 points on 10-for-15 shooting, which isn't surprising because every one of her 10 buckets was a layup.

"We thought we could score inside," CV coach Bill Wolf said. "We were trying to drive and then get that extra pass and Lehman was the recipient most of the time. We had a nice inside-outside game."

Greencastle coach Mike Rhine said, "I had a good seat to see an excellent team. It was like watching a clinic."

The Eagles (19-3), who will face Lower Dauphin on Thursday for the league title, had 28 baskets, and 20 were assisted. Most of the ones that weren't came on put-backs, thanks to a 38-24 advantage on the boards, including 15 offensive rebounds.

"I think they got the first eight rebounds of the game, and that kind of gets in your head," Rhine said.

The Blue Devils (20-2), who had a 16-game winning streak stopped, were still in the game with a 15-10 deficit, but Lehman scored on a put-back at the buzzer of the first period. To start the second, Katie Jekot nailed a 3-pointer and Kelly Jekot drove for a basket and it was 22-10.

Hannah Crist scored on back-to-back drives down the lane to bring Greencastle within 24-16, but Cumberland Valley scored 11 of the last 12 points of the half to go ahead 35-17, and that was that.

Crist said, "We knew how good they were, and we're still trying to adjust to having a new starter (Madison Sweitzer is still out with an injury). I think our offense was all right, but our defense needs some work. We held their stars down, but the others hurt us."

Katie Jekot scored 14 points and Kelly added 10, but they were a combined 8-for-31 from the field.

"What we need more than anything else is practice," Rhine said. "We had all those games in a row and I didn't want to play much man-to-man because we had to save ourselves. We tried it tonight, but our rotations weren't that good. Plus, their offense is just beautiful to watch."

Crist and Jenay Faulkner turned out to be the only options on offense for the Blue Devils. Faulker totaled 18 points and Crist had 13. The rest of the team was 2-for-17 from the field and Meghan Hirneisen's five points were the only points they scored.

Wolf said, "Greencastle has two excellent players in Faulkner and Crist. We needed to defend their outside shots and we know they're both very good at driving, too. I thought we did pretty well against them."

Notes: Faulkner and Hirneisen each had six rebounds for Greencastle, and Faulkner blocked four shots ... Morgan Baughman led CV with 13 boards, and added nine points ... The Eagles made only four turnovers, to 13 for G-A ... The Blue Devils are off until the first round of the District 3 Class AAA playoffs, when they host Fleetwood at 7 p.m. next Wednesday.

Cumberland Valley 70, Greencastle 36 

Cumberland Valley (70)

Mackenzie Torresin 2-5 0-0 4, Katie Jekot 5-19 3-3 14, Morgan Baughman 3-6 1-1 9, Kelly Jekot 3-12 4-4 10, Sarah Lehman 10-15 0-0 20, Allison Hinish 0-0 0-0 0, Mackenzie Zimmerman 2-3 3-4 7, Jess Tonrey 2-4 0-0 4, Lydia Schwalm 1-2 0-0 2, Melanie Miller 0-1 0-0 0. Totals — 28-67 11-12 70.

Greencastle (36)

Hannah Crist 5-13 1-2 13, Morgan Wagaman 0-3 0-0 0, Jenay Faulkner 6-16 4-5 18, Meghan Hirneisen 2-12 0-0 5, Ashley True 0-1 0-0 0, Hannah Hailey 0-0 0-0 0, Lydia Crist 0-0 0-0 0. Totals — 12-44 5-7 36.

Cumb. Valley _ 17 _ 18 _ 20 _ 15 _ — _ 70

Greencastle _ 10 _ 7 _ 8 _ 11 _ — _ 36

3-point goals — CV 3-7 (Baughman 2, Ka.Jekot), GA 5-24 (H.Crist 2, Faulkner 2, Hirneisen).