Monroe, Dixon power Abington past Neshaminy
ABINGTON >> His first two seasons at Abington, Lucas Monroe would show what he can do in flashes.
But, usually, they wouldn’t last more than a couple possessions as the wing would cede back to the team’s upperclassmen. Now, as a junior, Lucas is one of the lead guys for the Galloping Ghosts and he knew it was time to spark those flashes into something more sustained.
It’s difficult to peg what Monroe does best because he does so much so well and he left an imprint all over the game as Abington handed Neshaminy its first loss in a 72-49 victory
“Lucas is special,” Abington (5-2, 3-0 SOL National) coach Charles Grasty said. “You don’t really see a lot of 6-foot-5 guards, but he can guard the ‘1’ through the ‘5’ and he likes it, he likes to play defense, he’s a very unselfish kid, you can see he’s never worried about how many points he scores, he’s all about the team.”
Monroe can score, dropping 15 on Neshaminy Wednesday. He can rebound, as evidenced by his 16-board outing. He can pass, dishing out six assists against Neshaminy including a gorgeous outlet bounce pass to Brandon Coffman for a score. And, he can also defend, spending most of Wednesday’s game guarding Neshaminy standout senior guard Chris Arcidiacono.
Arcidiacono only scored eight points with Monroe and his teammates forcing the Neshaminy (7-1, 1-1 SOL National) senior into a lot of difficult, contested shots.
“We really focused on him, they have a great team, they can all shoot and they play well together but we know he’s their most valuable player. We weren’t really going to stop him, he was going to get his baskets because great scorers score but we knew we could contain him,” Monroe said. “I thought, and Coach Grasty probably said this, my length was pretty good on him, I was able to stay with him. We felt if we could contain him a little bit, keep him from scoring 35, then we could beat them. We wanted to make their other guys make plays.
“We’ve played against some great players so far this season with Bethlehem Catholic, Valley Forge, Neumann-Goretti and Archbishop Carroll, we’ve played against a lot of Division I players and he’s another one. He had a great summer, he got a bunch of offers and we have a lot of respect for him. He’s another challenge and I thought we handled it well.”
Monroe wasn’t the only Ghost getting his work against Neshaminy. Junior Eric Dixon showed more of the talent that has college coaches coveting the 6-foot-7 power forward, scoring 23 points and reeling in 15 rebounds of his own.
Dixon, who took an unofficial visit to Villanova earlier Wednesday, powered inside while Wildcats coach Jay Wright looked on from the stands. Neshaminy sent a lot of help on Dixon, but the forward kept battling, getting second or third looks as he pursed his own misses off the glass.
“Absolutely, why not give him the ball? He’s an all-state player, we want to dump it down to him when we can,” Grasty said. “Eric, he’s an unselfish kid and he’s going to play hard, he’s going to miss some shots but he’s going to go after it, he gets after it, we’re not going to say let Eric shoot the ball all game, we try to spread it around. I thought we did.”
Grasty added he wants the other players to be offended when teams plan to stop Dixon and if the opposition wants to sag in and clog up the middle, it’s on them to take advantage.
The Ghosts trailed 5-0 to start the game but ended up ahead 15-9 after the first quarter and took a 33-17 advantage into the half. Abington pushed the lead to 20 points or higher a handful of times in the second half led by Dixon and Monroe on the offensive end and solid defending on the other.
It’s Grasty’s eighth season in charge at Abington and he’s already accomplished plenty with two district titles and a state semifinal run. He added another milestone on Wednesday, picking up his 150th win with the Ghosts.
“It means that we had some really good players come through the program. We’ve been fortunate enough to get really good kids and good players,” Grasty said. “We always like to say that, not to be cocky, but we’re Abington, people always ask about kids trasnferring and all that kind of stuff, but why not stay at home? We’ve been fortunate enough that kids are staying home, we’re trying to get our program in the right direction and 150 wins, it’s a credit to my staff, and the kids. It’s a tough game, I don’t have this game mastered, no one does, and everyone that’s come through the program has been a part of it.”
Dixon wasn’t the only college prospect on the floor Wednesday and Wright wasn’t the only coach in the house either. Monroe has been in contact with Penn along with several other schools and Quakers coach Steve Donahue was in the building as well.
The one thing everyone in the Graveyard saw on Wednesday is that the SOL National title still runs through Abington.
“That was a big thing we were harping on, because we’ve won five (conference) championships in a row and every year there’s a new team that’s supposed to beat us but we want to set the tone early,” Monroe said. “We’re 3-0 in the league now, we wanted to set the tone, we wanted to tell everyone else we don’t care if they’re second in the district, we don’t care if they’re 7-0, we want to come out there and beat them.”
ABINGTON 72, NESHAMINY 49
NESHAMINY 9 8 17 15 – 49
ABINGTON 15 18 19 20 – 72
Abington: Eric Dixon 11 1-2 23, Lucas Monroe 6 3-6 15, Robbie Heath 2 2-3 6, Darious Brown 2 0-0 6, Brandon Coffman 1 1-2 3, Xavier Crawford 1 0-0 3, Hasan Whiby 3 0-0 8, Bryan Coffman 1 0-0 2, Dante Knox 2 0-0 6. Totals: 29 7-13 72.
Neshaminy: Pat Campbell 2 0-0 4, Chris Arcidiacono 4 0-1 8, Anthony Papeo 2 0-0 6, Danny Bodine 4 3-4 12, Charles Dominick 4 2-2 13, Greg Deluca 0 1-2 1, Cam Jeffers 0 2-2 2, Logan Williamson 1 0-0 2, Ian Deduro 0 1-2 1. Totals: 17 9-13 49.
3-pointers: A – Knox 2, Whiby 2, Brown 2, Crawford; N – Dominick 3, Papeo 2, Bodine.
