Abington finds finishing gear against Plymouth Whitemarsh

WHITEMARSH >> With five minutes left on the road Wednesday night, Abington found another level.

Plymouth Whitemarsh center Naheem McLeod had just scored to cut the Galloping Ghosts’ lead to 10 points and the Colonials’ side of the packed house at Gym West was ready to explode. Instead, it was the Abington contingent that got to celebrate like crazy as the Ghosts slammed the pedal into the floorboard and ripped off 11 straight points.

Abington’s furious finish put a fitting capper on its 69-51 win over PW as the Ghosts’ supporting cast stepped up around Eric Dixon and Lucas Monroe.

“That’s exactly what it felt like,” Abington coach Charles Grasty said. “Our guys wanted it. They made the right plays, we knew (PW) was going to make a run, they’re a good team so we wanted to try to sustain their run and capitalize. I thought we did by sharing the ball.”

In the first matchup of the two District 1 powers this season, Dixon and McLeod had quiet games in a 47-40 Ghosts  (18-1, 11-0 SOL American) win. Wednesday, Dixon scored nine in the first quarter to match his total from the first game before finishing with 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

McLeod led PW (11-7, 7-4 SOL American) with 16 points, eight rebounds and six blocks that included rejections on Monroe and Dixon. The Colonials also got a spark from the return of guard Anthony Straface, with the senior coming off the bench for 13 points, 11 coming in the first half.

After the game, Straface and McLeod left together, each one of them expressing some frustration that their team hasn’t been able to get over the hump against a quality opponent.

“We felt like there were about seven plays in the game that were “that play” that makes it a one or two possession game and every one of them went Abington’s way,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said. “You’re going with Anthony’s natural ability to score against everything you worked on two days before. They’re a young bunch, so it’s not how we would normally operate when it comes to preparing.”

PW was still short one starter with Jason Cherry out but close to a return. It wasn’t a lack of effort, as Ray Tomassetti nearly threw himself over the scorer’s table trying to save a loose ball, but more of a lack of experience continuing to hit PW at the wrong time.

After graduating five of its top six from last year, the Colonials coaches expected some bumps in the path, but nothing like this.

“We’ve gone from a reloading situation to a rebuilding situation because of the injury-riddled year,” Donofrio said. “In all honesty, this was the kind of team that had to stay very fortunate and not have any injuries so a top six could learn and they haven’t been on the floor but 20 minutes the entire season.”

Monroe had a great game for Abington, scoring 14 points with eight rebounds and a block but even with he and Dixon combining for 40 points, the Ghosts needed help to win. They got plenty of it from their senior-laden supporting cast, as they have all season.

With PW at times sending a triple team at Dixon as soon as he caught the ball in the paint, Abington knew the ball had to move. Grasty couldn’t have been happier with how it did, citing the team’s 19 assists on its 27 made baskets.

“It comes down to practice, we work on moving the ball and getting those guys shots,” Dixon said. “When we come out on the court and do the same things we did in practice, it makes things easy.”

Junior Manir Waller had 10 points, seniors Maurice Henry and Darius Brown each had eight and senior  Derek Sussman hit a second quarter three off a pass from Dixon. Abington, which has won three District I titles in the previous four seasons, has had a different supporting cast for each but the constant is that they’ve had one.

Brown scored all eight of his points in the second quarter while Henry, who Monroe noted hit a huge three in the first meeting, spread his points out to go with three offensive rebounds and feisty defense.

“We’re 14-15 strong,” Monroe said. “I have complete faith in Darius, Maurice, Manir, any of them to make the right play. Even if they’re not taking a shot, I have complete faith they’re making the right play and they’ve been doing that all season.”

Monroe and Dixon did most of the heavy lifting in staking Abington to an 18-11 lead after one. With the guys around them making PW pay for taking the ball out of the duo’s hands, the Ghosts led 39-27 at the halftime break.

PW made two runs in the second half. The first, led by a surging McLeod, got the Colonials within 49-42 on Straface’s lone second half basket with 2:03 left in the third. The Florida State-bound McLeod had 10 points in the quarter, but the Ghosts still found their way to a 55-44 lead.

“You need to be more sophisticated to be within seven and make the right play and right now we’re taking a quick jump shot or a deep shot and they revert back to an intramural mentality,” Donofrio said. “It’s been a challenge all year, and you can’t get to it in practice because you have three guys on the sideline.

“Right now, we’re a middle of the pack team. They do really well against half the district and the Bonner, Abington, Kennedy Catholic world, there’s still a lot of learning to do.”

After McLeod chopped the lead back to 10 with 5:06 left, Abington ripped off the next 11 in about three minutes of game time, spurred mainly by transition baskets off PW misses or turnovers.

“We started playing our game a little better than we already were,” Monroe said. “I’ve said a lot that if focus on playing defense, getting the rebound and outletting it, we’re going to get fast breaks. We got a couple stops, a couple turnovers. We had 22 points off turnovers and a lot of those were toward the end of the game, so we were really locking up on defense and getting the ball out.”

PW visits Upper Dublin on Thursday then hosts Malvern Prep on Saturday as part of the John Salmons Classic. Abington visits Wissahickon on Friday night as they try to stay one game ahead of Cheltenham in the American standings.

“We came with a little more energy today, we came into a hostile environment and came together a little bit more, which speaks to our trust,” Dixon said. “We came in here worked together and we brought out a win.”

ABINGTON 18 21 16 14 – 69
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 11 16 17 7 – 51
Abington: Eric Dixon 10 5-5 26, Manir Waller 5 0-0 10, Maurice Henry 3 1-2 8, Darius Brown 3 0-0 8, Lucas Monroe 5 4-7 14, Derek Sussman 1 0-0 3. Totals: 27 10-14 69.
Plymouth Whitemarsh: Naheem McLeod 8 0-0 16, Jaden Pryce 3 0-0 6, Caelin Peters 4 3-4 12, Anthony Straface 5 0-0 13, Luke DiCianno 1 1-1 3, Jordan Evans 0 1-2 1. Totals: 21 5-7 51.
3-pointers: A – Brown 2, Henry, Dixon; PW – Straface 3, Peters.