Pennridge slows but can’t stop Abington in District 1-6A semifinals
PHILADELPHIA >> Dean Behrens knew there was not going to a perfect way to stop the Abington offense.
“You have to give up something to get something,” the Pennridge boys basketball coach said.
As they did in the teams’ previous meeting in the Suburban One League tournament final, the Rams opted to go with a zone defense in Tuesday night’s District 1-6A semifinal to keep the Ghosts’ Eric Dixon from putting up the sensational stat lines the 6-foot-8 Villanova commit has been doing all year.
That part worked as Dixon did not score a point in the second half and finished with a season-low nine points.
But the opportunity cost of keeping Dixon in check was a struggle on the boards while guards Maurice Henry and Penn-bound Lucas Monroe carried the Ghosts’ attack as top-seeded Abington left Temple’s Liacouras Center with a 50-38 victory.
“We thought we’d change up our slides a little bit, we’d try to front Dixon more,” Behrens said. “Try to play like a combination of behind and a front. I mean Dixon had nine going into the third quarter, I thought man if we had (held Dixon to) nine, you told me that, I’m in. Unfortunately Monroe had (16) and he had a couple run outs so that didn’t help us.”
The Rams held Abington to its second-lowest point total this season – a 47-40 win over Plymouth Whitemarsh Jan. 4 being the Ghosts’ season-low – but had their only troubles producing points, as Pennridge was held to under 40 for the first time since falling to Lower Merion 63-39 in last season’s district quarters.
And unlike in the SOL final where Abington had to rally from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to earn a 62-52 win, the Ghosts never trailed in reaching the district final for a third straight year. Abington goes for a 6A three-peat Saturday against Coatesville, a 71-66 winner over Lower Merion in Tuesday’s first semifinal.
“I felt like we were confident coming in, we’ve played them three times obviously,” Behrens said. “Thought the second time we played them we really got them on the ropes but I think the one thing they had a little over us, they have a little more experience playing down here in Temple.
“You know Monroe and (Darious) Brown and Dixon, obviously, they’ve probably played here four of five times.”
Moore scored eight points in the first quarter as Abington ended the period up 17-11. And when the Rams pulled within 19-16 in the second quarter after a Sean Yoder 3-pointer, the Ghosts ended the half with a 12-2 run.
“High school kids see a zone they want to shoot the first time they touch it. We wanted to get the zone to move a little bit,” Abington coach Charles Grasty said. “We wanted to get the moving, get our guys moving, get our guys in spots if you see that we’ve been moving a lot against that zone. And just try to confuse that zone and get it to move. I thought we got it to move pretty well in the first half.”
Pennridge’s rebounding issues showed up at the end of the run as Henry grabbed his own missed 3-pointer and proceeded to find Dixon for a deep triple from the top of the arc for a 29-18 lead. Monroe’s slam off a Henry alley-oop made it 31-18 at halftime.
“The one thing I think I was tough in our zone defense is we didn’t attack the ball, we were watching,” Behrens said. “That’s where I felt we were too much in awe of this, we just didn’t attack. We we’re disengaging from boxing out and going for the rebound.”
Eight straight points in the third quarter by Pennridge cut its deficit down to 33-26 after two Yoder free throws at 4:21. But the run was snapped by the Rams giving up another offensive rebound on a three, this time Manir Waller corralling the ball, driving in to score and drawing the foul.
“I still think we can do a better job on the boards,” Behrens said. “We did not disengage and attack the rim, rebounds, like we stood. I don’t know what happened and why. We haven’t really seen that all year. Maybe it was just the atmosphere we were in, little bit awestruck.”
A Waller putback slam extended the margin to 11 before a Yoder drive made it 37-28 at the end of three. But Abington scored the first six points of the fourth to go up 43-28 and Pennridge could only close to within 12 the rest of the way.
The result moved the Rams to 0-3 against Abington this year – and 23-1 against everyone else – there’s still at the very least two more basketball games left for Pennridge, beginning Friday as it heads down to Lower Merion to face the Aces in the district third-place game Friday.
“I’m not down on the boys. I’m proud of the season we’ve had so far. It’s not over,” Behrens said. “What we’ve going to do know is obviously compete on Friday night. We got to play Lower Merion at Lower Merion it’s for a three seed in the district or a fourth seed. So, there’ a meaning to it, they’re going to keep score, so that means we’re going to try to compete.
“So we’re not going to back down, we’re not going to cry about, we’re going to get back at it tomorrow and we’re going to try to get better.”
