GREENCASTLE — Greencastle-Antrim took an 11-point lead early in the fourth quarter of a District 3 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game Thursday night, but had to hold its breath at the end.
Manheim Central battled back to get within 48-45 and had the ball, but a pair of missed shots and a key rebound by G-A’s Conner Wright enabled the Blue Devils to record a 49-45 victory on their home court.
The win advances No. 4 Greencastle (20-5) into the district semifinals, where it will take on No. 1 Hershey (20-2) on the Trojans’ home court Monday at 7 p.m. Hershey edged Warwick 62-58 in the quarterfinals.
The Blue Devils took a 44-33 lead early in the fourth on a basket by Eli Sterling, but managed only 5 more points the rest of the game, all by Wright.
Jackson Tracy hit s pair of threes and Ryan Kenneff hit one in the fourth quarter to help Manheim Central (19-5) make it close. Tracy’s second bomb made it 48-45 in G-A’s favor with 1:25 remaining. Wright missed a shot and the Barons called a time out with 45.9 seconds left.
G-A coach Todd Stephens said, “Our defense was fine, but they made some shots down the stretch.”
Manheim Central used up most of the clock against an active Greencastle defense before Tracy took a contested 3-point shot from the corner that missed. The Barons missed a rebound bucket, then Wright grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 0:08.1 left.
“I was a little surprised, coming out of a timeout, they didn’t run a play,” Stephens said, “But maybe they did have one and our defense may have stopped it.”
Wright made the second of two foul shots, then Manheim Central missed two desperation shots before the final horn sounded.
Stephens said, “We spent the last two days on (defensive) strategy. The guys bought into it and we understood their personnel.”
Logan Alvey was on fire from long range for the Blue Devils, hitting five 3-pointers to lead the team with 15 points. He one at the end of each of the first two quarters and hit back-to-back threes in the third quarter to give G-A its first double-digit lead at 32-22.
Sterling added 12 points and Jordan Hunt scored 11, including a trio of 3-pointers. Wright scored 7 of his 9 points in the second half.
“Alvey and Hunt both shot the ball with a lot of confidence,” Stephens said. “And their teammates did a nice job of finding them.”
For the Barons, Tracy had 16 points and Kenneff 11, but leading scorer Aaron Enterline was held to just 4 points.
The task now is to find a way to turn around the result against Hershey, which hammered the Blue Devils 77-49 in a Mid Penn semifinal game last week.
Stephens said, “We’ll see if we can make some adjustments. But we just weren’t ourselves on defense last time, so hopefully we can do better this time.”
With Thursday’s win, Greencastle assured itself of at least a fourth-place finish in districts and a top-4 seed for when the state pairings are released.
Greencastle 49, Manheim Central 45
MANHEIM CENTRAL
Aaron Enterline 1 2-4 4, Ryan Kenneff 3 4-5 11, Jackson Tracy 6 0-1 16, Chase Book 4 0-0 9, Mason Rodgers 1 0-0 3, Sam Witmer 1 0-0 2, Zac Hahn 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 6-10 45.
GREENCASTLE
Eli Sterling 6 0-1 12, Surzano Solomon 0 0-0 0, Carter McCauley 1 0-2 2, Logan Alvey 5 0-0 15, Jordan Hunt 4 0-0 11, Conner Wright 3 3-4 9. Totals 19 3-7 49.
Manheim Central 8 12 13 12 — 45
Greencastle 12 14 16 7 — 49
3-point shots — MC 7 (Tracy 4, Kenneff, Book, Rodgers); G-A 8 (Alvey 5, Hunt 3).