SOHTH LEBANON - On a night when it played aggressive, in-your face 'D', it was somehow ironic that defensive breakdowns cost the Cedar Crest girls' basketball team dearly.

 On Thursday evening, the Falcons fell to Manheim Township 49-48 in an epic two-overtime defensive struggle. After being fouled, with no time left on the second-overtime clock, Blue Streak Jordan Brewer converted the second of two free throws to give her team the victory.

 Manheim Township had forced the second extra session on an uncontested in-bounds lay-in by Lisbet Byler with two seconds left in the first overtime. A free throw from Cedar Crest's Taylor Boyer with 42 seconds left in regulation sent the game into 'bonus basketball' tied at 32.

 The result created uncertaintity atop the Lancaster-Lebanon Section One standings. Cedar Crest fell to 13-4 on the year and 9-3 in the section, while the Blue Streaks moved to 13-5 overall and 9-3 in the circuit.

 Back on Jan. 5 in Neffsville, Cedar Crest had defeated Manheim Township 49-40.

 "At the end of the first overtime, we got lost defensively," said Cedar Crest head coach Gretchen Hall. "And Meghan Phillips' rebound (foul) was called 'on the floor'. Those are the ones (that could've gone either way) that stick out to me. One was our mistake, and the other was something we can't control."

 Cedar Crest threatened a third overtime when Megan McCabe converted a lay-in with 12 seconds remaining in the second extra session. But that was after the Falcons had apparently won it when a Boyer-fed Phillips' lay-in with 14 seconds left in the first overtime gave CC a 41-39 edge.

 "What happened?" said Hall of the final play of the first overtime. "We were suppose to switch on all screens. And we didn't. And they got a lay-up.

 "There were definitely times when we had some nerves," continued Hall. "At the beginning of the game especially. The shots weren't going in and the passes were too hard. It was a big game."

 Phillips led Cedar Crest with 17 late points, 11 of which came from the charity stipe. Falcon spark-plug and guard Jazmine Trimble contributed 13 points and Boyer collected an even dozen.

 "Section One is not easy," said Hall. "You've got to come every night ready to play. There were some nerves, but we played with everything we had.

 "We could've put it away so easily if we would've made our free throws," Hall added. "I bet it (free throws) was under 40 percent in the overtimes. We couldn't shoot, from anywhere."

 The only bucket Cedar Crest could muster in the opening 6:19 was a putback by Phillips, and the Falcons trailed 8-2 early. But they grabbed a 25-24 edge on six straight Trimble points in the middle of the third period.

 "It was good defense," said Hall."But if we could've hit our outside shots... It's not like we're a poor-shooting team. It was a bad-shooting night.

 "I thought they were jamming our cutters a lot," Hall continued. "We couldn't make the cuts we needed to make. Our timing was just off."

MANHEIM TOWNSHIP (49)

 Abby Zielinski 1 5-6 6, Lisbet Byler 3 2-2 8, J.J.Collins 0 0-0 0, Kiersten Green 3 4-6 10, Jordan Brewer 3 3-4 9, Emily McDonald 1 0-0 2, Abby Ness 0 0-0 0, Alex Ross 4 3-8 11, Molly Kendrick 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 19-24 49

CEDAR CREST (48)

 Marla Simmons 0 0-0 0, Meghan Phillips 3 11-14 17, Jazmine Trimble 4 3-3 13, Torri Wagner 1 1-2 4, Taylor Boyer 3 6-10 12, Kristen Clemens 0 0-0 0. Megan McCabe 1 0-0 2. Totals: 12 21-29 28

Manheim Township 11 7 10 4 9 7 - 49

Cedar Crest 7 10 11 5 9 6 - 48

 Three-point field goals: CC - Trimble 2,Wagner.

 Fouled out: MT - McDonald. CC - Simmons, Boyer.

 JV score: Manheim Township 34, Cedar Crest 28