North Penn puts scare into Abington in District 1-AAAA 1st round defeat

ABINGTON — With no timeouts and 12.8 seconds left, North Penn inbounded the ball with a chance to pull a major upset.

But with its top two ballhandlers out, the Knights had to have a post player bring it up into the swarming teeth of Abington’s defense. The Ghosts were able to make one final stop, led by BJ James’ ferocious pressure, to survive 59-58 in the first round of the District 1-AAAA Tournament Friday night.

“Our kids played as well as they’ve played all year,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “That’s a testament to them because that’s a lot of mental toughness on the big stage. They played as hard as they’ve played and as well as they’ve played all year.”

Amir Hinton had 19 to lead Abington, Matt Penecale had 18 and Brendan Gallagher dropped in eight. Joey Richards played a monster game on both ends, leading North Penn with 18, JJ Melchior had 17 off the bench and Derek Heiserman had 10.

Abington hosts No. 11 Chester in the second round on Tuesday night.

A few days removed from a dominant outing against Pennsbury, the Galloping Ghosts came out aggressive, maybe a little too much so. Senior guard Matt Penecale picked up two fouls in a 15-second span in the first quarter, and his third with 5:44 left in the half.

With their captain bolted to the bench, the Ghosts put it on the shoulders of Amir Hinton. Hinton delivered with 16 points at halftime, but Abington couldn’t seem to slow the Knights.“It’s the playoffs, you gotta love that,” Abington coach Charles Grasty said. “Nothing’s easy, we knew they were going to come and play hard. They contested our shots,  we missed a lot of ours, they made a lot of theirs but we had to just battle, we battled on the glass, we tried to get to the foul line, we had to do whatever was necessary. I thought the last two possessions defensively got it for us.”

Abington was ahead 16-11 after one thanks to Hinton beating the buzzer on a 30-foot 3-pointer. But the Knights came out with a 7-0 run that put them up 18-16 briefly. The key play in the run was Richards drawing Penecale’s third foul on a drive to the hoop.

Richards had 10 at the break, including a corner 3-pointer he swished with Hinton’s hand in his face. He was also a pest on defense, using his long limbs to hound Penecale and Hinton for spurts.

“He’s been there for us for years,” Conrad said. “We needed him to play exceptionally well and I thought he did. We just came up short.”

Abington went back up 20-18, but Richards’ first 3-pointer and a bucket by Jared Melone restored the North Penn edge.