HERSHEY, Pa.—To the naked eye there wasn't much wrong with the way Spring-Ford played defense in the first half of Friday night's PIAA Class AAAA girls' basketball championship.

In the Rams locker room at halftime, though, they were not a happy bunch despite holding a two-point lead over Cumberland Valley from District 3.

Spring-Ford turned up the defensive heat in the second half and shut down the Eagles to slowly pull away for a 60-45 victory at Giant Center.

"It wasn't like we were sitting back in the first half, but our defense was a little too passive," said senior guard Sami Haas, one of three Rams to finish with 11 points. "We were not happy at halftime. Our coach didn't have to yell at us or anything.

"We knew what we had to do to turn it up a notch."

District 1 champion Spring-Ford (32-2) held Cumberland Valley without a field goal for almost six minutes to open the second half. The Rams went on an 11-4 run to start the third quarter to open up comfortable lead it would never relinquish.

Cumberland Valley (26-7) managed only five field goals the final 16 minutes.

"They just kept pushing us further and further from the basket," Cumberland Valley coach Bill Wolf said. "But what really hurt us was we couldn't get the ball in bounds at times and turned it over.

"On a big stage like this, their experience and steals set the tone for them to make their run."

Spring-Ford also had a good night shooting. The Rams shot 57 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, 47 percent for the game and made all four of their free throws.

Brittany Moore and Haas each finished with 11 points and combined went 6-for-10 from beyond the 3-point stripe. Sammy Stipa also had 11 points, but added six assists and a half-dozen steals.

"We kept our feet moving in the second half, and that's what you have to do in order to disrupt great teams," Spring-Ford coach Jeff Rinehimer said. "We had some foul trouble in the first half and everybody contributed on both offense and defense.

"We played a very strong non-conference schedule and I think that gave us confidence and prepared us for this. It's not easy to win this."

Cumberland Valley's only senior starter, Jackie Falconer, led all scorers with 18 points. Freshman Kelly Jekot added 12 for the Eagles, who shot only 30 percent as a team from the floor.

The Rams outrebounded the Eagles 37-23 and shared the basketball extremely well by registering assists on 18 of their 24 baskets.

"They passed off so well on defense," Falconer said. "They were on us the entire game."