47 candles: Abington’s Dixon dominates in birthday win
WYNCOTE >> Eric Dixon’s plans for the evening of his 18th birthday were pretty low-key.
The afternoon portion of his day was anything but low-key as the Abington senior did what he’s done all season with another huge game for the Galloping Ghosts boys’ basketball team. Up against an athletic, extremely talented and prepared Sankofa Freedom squad, Dixon came out and dominated.
Abington closed out its nonconference schedule behind 47 points, 19 rebounds and four blocks from the big man as the Ghosts topped Sankofa 85-71 as part of the All-City Classic event at Bishop McDevitt on Saturday.
“I was surprised at the end of the fourth quarter when they said I had that many,” Dixon, who has signed to play at Villanova, said. “I just tried to play hard and get the win.”
Dixon, who shot a scorching 19-of-25 from the floor, didn’t take long to get going. The 6-foot-7 power forward splashed a 3-pointer off a pass from Lucas Monroe to open Abington’s scoring and had 13 points by the end of the first frame with his team up 20-16.
For a few minutes, it looked like Abington would run away early as the Ghosts went up 13-3. Then, Sankofa senior Scott Spann started cooking and a game-long scoring duel was underway. Spann, a 6-foot-1 guard, scored the last 13 of the quarter for the Warriors and ended the frame with 15 points.
With a good-sized crowd on hand in McDevitt’s gym, it was officially on.
“As a competitor, you see one guy doing something and you want to go right back at him,” Dixon said. “I know those guys. We kept it friendly and competitive, we talked a little bit and tried to have fun with the game.”
Dixon hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second quarter as part of an 8-0 Ghosts run, he assisted a Maurice Henry trey and later on threw down a strong two-handed dunk that gave Abington a 33-29 lead.
“The first three, I didn’t feel that great or anything and I didn’t even know if it was going to go in, and once I hit the second one, it kind of all fell together,” Dixon said.
Spann was still carrying most of the scoring load for Sankofa, but 6-foot-6 wing Khalil Turner chipped in plenty during the second quarter with seven points. The Ghosts never trailed, but they also couldn’t shake the Warriors and led just 41-35 at the break with senior Lucas Monroe picking up his third foul right before the half ended.
At one in the first half, Abington coach Charles Grasty told his guys they didn’t have the luxury of waiting things out and they needed to be direct with their decisions. The Ghosts did it well in spurts in the first half but as Dixon would describe it, it was 16 minutes of two teams trading runs.
Dixon had 24 points at the break while Spann, who ended with 38 points, had 23. Both players would go to be named their respective team’s game MVP.
“In the second half, we played with a better pace,” Grasty said. “We knew they wanted to get up and down the floor and we wanted to play our style, dump it in, make them guard our big and hit some shots from the outside. We made them chase a little bit and once we got them to chase, we felt like we’d be tough to catch because we have Eric to dump it in to.”
Sankofa made a charge to start the third quarter, pulling within a point at 41-40 on Spann’s free throw with 5:58 left in the frame. The Warriors showed why they’re one of the best teams in Philly by refusing to yield and were within 49-47 with 4:11 left in the third after Spann hit another shot from long range.
Then Dixon took over. Over the next two minutes, the big man scored eight straight, ruling the area around the basket as part of a 10-0 Ghosts run that finally made the Warriors have to chase the game.
Dixon notched 15 points in the third quarter, getting three put-back baskets and drawing a foul on two other shots.
“That’s our big fella and he’s a heck of a player,” Grasty said. “We believe he’s one of the best in the country, it’s unfortunate he didn’t make the McDonald’s All-American game, we feel like he should have, but we’re going to ride our horse.
“This coaching staff, we may not be the smartest group but we’re not going to make a lot of dumb mistakes by not giving him the ball.”
Dixon faced plenty of double and triple teams throughout the afternoon, but just kept powering through and using his footwork to create shots around the rim.
Senior Darius Brown and Monroe were also very good for Abington both scoring the ball and helping to control the pace and tempo. Brown shot well, hitting a trio of 3-pointers as part of a 12-point, four assist day with six rebounds.
Monroe, a Penn commit, scored 19 points with eight rebounds that included an emphatic dunk off a broken play to put Abington ahead 78-58 with 3:55 to play. The wing now sits at 920 career points.
“They’ve been doing it all year,” Grasty said. “They’ve been pushing the ball, running our offense, dumping it inside and getting us good looks. They did a good job controlling the tempo for us.
Sankofa supported Spann’s big day with a 17-point game from Darrius Ward and 14 points from Turner, a Rider recruit. Grasty said he was glad to get a game against a team of the Warriors caliber this late in the season, adding his team has seen pretty much everything as the regular season winds down.
With Saturday’s effort, Dixon is now at 542 points on the season in 18 games, good for a 30.1 points per game average. He became the first player in Abington history to score 2,000 points last week with a career-high 50-point game, an accomplishment he took a lot of pride in getting done at his home gym.
“They’ve watched me since my freshman year and always showed me support so for them to be there for a milestone moment, not only for myself but for Abington, to be the first one, I’m glad that everyone who wanted to see it could see it,” Dixon said.
After showing out Saturday afternoon, Dixon was looking forward to a quiet birthday night with his work done for the day.
“Nothing crazy,” Dixon said of his plans. “I’ll go out to dinner with some family and just kick it back.”
ABINGTON 20 21 22 22 – 85
SANKOFA FREEDOM 16 19 19 17 – 71
A: Eric Dixon 19 6-9 47, Lucas Monroe 5 9-12 19, Darius Brown 1 4-4 7, Maurice Henry 1 4-4 7. Nonscoring: Manir Waller, Derek Sussman, Jack Moynihan, Jason Scott. Totals: 29 20-27 85
SF: Scott Spann 13 6-9 38, Darrius Ward 6 3-4 17, Khalil Turner 6 1-2 14, Canann Boswell 1 0-0 2, Jayson Savage 0 0-2 0. Totals: 26 10-19 71
3-pointers: A – Dixon 3, Brown 3, Henry; SF – Spann 6, Ward 2, Turner
