Holland’s hero shot sends La Salle past Abington

CHESTER >> Shane Holland took one look at the clock and let it fly.

The La Salle senior had just recovered a steal after teammate Jake Timby’s defense forced an errant dribble with three seconds left in a tie game. Holland dribbled up the floor and with just 0.5 left on the clock, pulled up from beyond NBA range.

Holland took two hop-steps toward his bench as the ball banked in at the horn, handing La Salle an improbable 38-35 win over Abington at Widener as part of the Pete and Jameer Nelson Play-By-Play Classic.

“I saw the ball come loose and I told myself ‘I have to get this,’” Holland said. “I went down, heaved it up. It was a prayer but it went in. I saw that clock, it said two seconds, so I didn’t time to do another dribble.

“It did feel like it was going in, but I called ‘bank’ too so I was covered.”

Holland’s shot capped a remarkable comeback by the Explorers over the final 2:45. After Abington’s Oreck Frazier scored to put the Ghosts ahead 35-28 with 2:51 left, La Salle finished the game on a 10-0 run sparked by its defense.

Holland and Nix Varano scored layups 35 seconds apart to cut the Ghosts’ lead down to three. After the Ghosts missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:49 left, La Salle (7-4, 0-3 PCL) found Varano for an open three that missed, with Abington’s Caleb Baker grabbing the rebound.

Again, Abington (4-4, 3-0 SOL American) missed the front end of a one-and-one and a foul on an offensive rebound giving the ball to La Salle with 49 seconds left. Jake Timby, the only returning starter from last season, missed a three with Abington getting the board and looking to push.

“Basically, it was all toughness,” Timby said. “We scored four points in the third quarter. We knew they weren’t a great shooting team so if we stuck in on defense, we’d have a chance to come back and that’s what we did.”

Abington’s Robert Bell got the board off TImby’s miss and pushed the ball quickly down the floor, driving into the lane. He was met by Mike DiPietro, who blocked Bell’s layup with Varano grabbing the rebound.

Holland dribbled back up the floor, drove into the lane and kicked to Varano as the guard was getting set in the right corner. Given another chance, Varano didn’t miss, swishing the game-tying three over a good contest by Baker with 16.2 left on the clock.

“We’ve been down in previous games, especially against Ryan and O’Hara in the PCL so today was a chance to show how tough we are,” Holland, in his first year as a varsity player, said. “The game isn’t over until it hits zero. We never lose confidence, we’re going to show that grit, toughness and passion until we get the win.”

Abington had a miserable start to the day, shooting just 5-of-22 in the first half but the Ghosts’ defense kept them in the game. Despite the frozen offense, Abington trailed just 18-13 at the break and would get things going in the third quarter.

However, games aren’t decided in eight minute spurts and Abington coach Charles Grasty noted this is the time where his team needs to start learning from its mistakes.

“We’re going to be saying it for a while, but enough is enough and we have to start learning from it,” Grasty said. “We’re going to keep saying it until the season is over or we’re going to actually learn from it. That’s our message to them, let’s stop saying ‘we’re going to learn’ because before you know it, the season’s going to be over.”

Abington opened the third on a 14-0 run, using a combination of defense and transition offense to attack La Salle and create scoring. Manir Waller had 17 rebounds in the game and as the lead ballhandler, helped get Abington moving fast off a La Salle miss.

Frazier’s steal and dunk put the Ghosts up 25-18 before a drive and score by Bell made it 27-18 with three minutes left in the third. The Ghosts lost a lot of that aggression in the latter half of the fourth quarter, which La Salle was able to take advantage of.

“We started turning the ball over in the fourth, we didn’t have the same energy and I thought we played a little passive,” Grasty said. “Instead of playing to win, we played not to lose. We can’t play that way, but I don’t want to put it all on them, we all have to do a better job.”

Timby noted the Explorers missed a lot of layups and open shots in the third and as a result, their energy dipped in the quarter. Holland said he never lost faith in his team’s ability to win and La Salle knew it had to pick up the defensive energy.

In the fourth, Timby said the Explorers went to a more trap-heavy approach on the first pass Abington made, trying to pin Ghosts players in tough spots or force an outright turnover.

“At times, we haven’t shown that toughness so it was good to see us do that when we were down,” Timby said. “This makes us better. These types of wins are character wins and they show the kind of toughness we need to have.”

The Ghosts are off until Friday when they visit Plymouth Whitemarsh in SOL American play. Grasty plans to give the team a few days off to recover from their three games the last four days.

“We have to play like that third quarter from start to finish,” Grasty said. “We’re not doing that right now as a whole program. We have to do a better job of coming out and playing hard from the start, so we’ll look at some things and work to get it done from the start.”

Abington had a timeout on the last possession, but the quick inbound off Varano’s three actually put the Ghosts in an advantage with La Salle’s defense not yet set.

“I think they saw we were scrambling, so he tried to push it down the court, went for a behind-the-back and it went right to Shane,” Timby said. “He did the rest.”

After hitting the winner, Holland roared at his teammates on the bench before leading a parade to the far corner of the court in celebration.

“We’re underdogs,” Holland said. “But we still have La Salle on our chests, so everybody is going to come to play when they see La Salle so we have to bring that toughness and even if we’re down, keep fighting and we’ll find a way to win.”

LA SALLE 38, ABINGTON 35
LA SALLE 7 11 4 16 – 38
ABINGTON 6 7 16 6 – 35
L: Shane Holland 5 0-0 13, Liam O’Donnell 2 0-2 4, Jake Timby 3 0-0 8, Mike DiPietro 2 0-0 4, Matt Spinnelli 2 0-0 4, Nix Varano 2 0-0 5. Totals: 16 0-2 38.
A: Manir Waller 2 1-5 5, Antoine Ellis 1 0-0 2, Oreck Frazier 3 3-4 10, Robert Bell 4 0-1 9, Caleb Baker 1 0-2 2, Joey Brusha 1 0-0 3, Connor Fields 1 0-0 2, Sam McFarlane 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 4-12 35.
3-pointers: L – Holland 3, TImby 2, Varano; A – Frazier, Bell, Brusha.