Lochner leads Abington past Bishop Shanahan, back to states

DOWNINGTOWN >> Tuesday night, Abington senior guard Sammy Lochner sat in the stands watching St. Basil win its District I Class AA semifinal and something struck her.

Seeing the losing team’s seniors react to their last game, Lochner knew she just was not ready to face that feeling herself. Wednesday, she made sure it didn’t happen with a strong performance on the road at Bishop Shanahan to extend her season.

Lochner scored 18 points with five assists as she led the Galloping Ghosts to a 60-49 win over the Eagles in a District I Class AAAA play-back game. The win handed Abington a bid to states and it will face Penn Wood in the 9/10 game on Friday.

“It feels good, it took us longer than last year, but we got there,” Lochner said. “I didn’t want to go home. I went to some games last night and saw the seniors after their games and didn’t want it to be us today.”

Sammy Lochner’s shot to put @LadyGhostsBB up 40-35 late Q3 at Bishop Shanahan @PaPrepLive @SOLsports pic.twitter.com/gtt610QsbM

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 25, 2016

Will Lochner extended her high school career, Shanahan’s seniors in Ciara Forde and Grace Phillips saw theirs end with a long standing ovation when they were lifted from the game with about a minute left.

“Everything that they have done in the three years we’ve been here as a staff, they left a great, great foundation,” Shanahan coach Fran Burbidge said. “Our younger guys, they expect to win and they’re coming into something where we win a lot and that’s a great legacy to leave.”

The game started with plenty of tempo, the teams trading scores a couple of mini runs over the opening eight minutes. Abington got an early boost from Lochner and junior forward Lizzie O’Leary, but they were also plenty of self-inflicted damage.

The Ghosts’ passes weren’t crisp for the entire first half, allowing Shanahan’s long-armed Courtney Warley easy pickings on three of her four steals by the break. Ghosts coach Dan Marsh said it wasn’t that his players were voluntarily making bad passes, but that Shanahan was forcing the Ghosts out of their comfort zone.

“They did it all game, we had to settle down and make better decisions when teams are frantic,” Marsh said. “(Shanahan does) a great job with their length and their athleticism in making you speed up. Finally we were able to settle down, get it back inside and go to our bread and butter.”

That bread and butter is the inside presence of O’Leary, a Delaware commit and senior Leah Simmons, signed with Canisius for volleyball. Both forwards had 10 rebounds and O’Leary dropped in 16 points while sophomore guard Sam Brusha hit three 3-pointers as part of her 14 points.

Still, the frantic energy of Shanahan allowed the Eagles to take a 29-25 lead into the break. Even starting the third, Abington gave the ball up on its first two possessions before ripping off a 9-0 run to take a 34-29 lead. The third quarter has been the difference in all of Abington’s district games, its lone bad period was its second round loss to Perk Valley.

“We talked about slowing down in the locker room and we knew we were rushing things,” O’Leary said. “We were looking at the basket but they weren’t the right looks. We calmed down, took better shots and were more patient.”

Abington also bridged the end of the third and start of the fourth with a 10-0 run, the big basket coming with 42.2 left in the third when Lochner slashed in for a tear-drop that put the Ghosts up 40-35 at the end of the frame.

“She’s been amazing the last couple of games,” Marsh said. “She’s said, ‘look, I’m not ready for my season to be over.’ She’s being that kid, being that leader and that senior on a mission that wants to get it done. I’m very proud of her.”

Lochner, who will play at St. Peter’s next year, said the team has really come together the last couple of games. It showed in the play Wednesday, notably on defense. Abington had a wide margin in the rebound totals, 33-14 and forced the Eagles to take a lot of tough shots.

Not being able to find a bucket during either of Abington’s runs also clearly hurt Shanahan.

“They came out of the chute and made some shots right away and I thought we got into a few minutes where we were kind of feeling sorry for ourselves,” Burbidge said. “They shook out of it, we came back and battled but (Abington) made plays when they needed to.”

Lochner had three big assists in the fourth, the last to Brusha giving the Ghosts a 51-42 lead with 3:58 to play. Again, the Ghosts’ tendency to play a little too fast came up late in the quarter, and Marsh took a timeout to tell his kids to just slow down.

The coach blamed himself a little bit too, saying he can get a little frantic on the sidelines and his players tend to feed off him that way.

But the Ghosts kept making the extra pass, setting up some easy layups late and with 44 seconds left, Lochner put the finishing touches on a performance that ensures her at least two more games.

“It was a second opportunity for us,” Lochner said. “We knew that we had to work harder to get back. I didn’t want to go home, so this is pretty good.”