Abington outlasts furious CB South rally

ABINGTON >> Charles Grasty has been around basketball long enough to know that every game calls for something different.
It’s a message he repeats to his players, from the starters all the way down the bench. Abington’s boys’ basketball team plays a lot of guys and any night could be “the night” for any one of two of them. It’s a way to make sure they stay ready and that when it’s their turn, they have have confidence to embrace the moment.
Saturday, the Galloping Ghosts got some big defensive plays from Rob Young and BJ James off the bench to back up Robbie Heath as they held off CB South, 57-52 in the SOL Challenge.
“That’s a good team and knew they were going to make a run,” Grasty said. “We wanted to sustain it, it got a little closer than we wanted them to. They’re disciplined and they play hard, we played them a few years ago and said the same thing, Coach Campbell gets the most out of those guys.”
Abington dominated the first half, taking a 22-13 lead into the break after holding the Titans to 17 percent shooting.It seemed the Ghosts were continuing on from their huge defensive outing against Pennsbury on Thursday, but South wasn’t ready to wilt after two quarters.
Held to just four in the first half, South’s Tim Waddington strapped the team to his shoulders and started to carry them back into it. The wing finished with 20 points and made a number of huge plays in the fourth quarter as South cut the lead to one on several occasions.
“He was a matchup problem,” Grasty said. “He’s there guy, we knew he was the one they would try to focus on. We tried to take away some of their stuff but they run such nice stuff that it’s hard to hedge and help off of him.”
South surpassed its entire first half total in the third quarter, scoring 17 points. Despite that, the Titans made no headway as they conceded 17 back to Abington and the Ghosts led 39-30 going into the final stanza. That’s when things got really interesting.
After Lucas Monroe’s foul shots staked Abington to a 43-34 lead with 5:46 left, the Titans scored four straight, then Waddington sank a 3 after Eric Dixon scored for the Ghosts to cut it down to 45-41. With 3:18 left, Heath split a pair of foul shots, but that first miss would be his only miscue from the line in the quarter.
“I think I’m a pretty good free throw shooter, so I was confident I could knock them down,” Heath said.
Waddington willed in a reverse layup and after an empty Ghost possession, Nate Robinson hit two foul shots to cut the Ghost lead down to one, 46-45. Luckily for Abington, Heath could back up his confidence with production, hitting two at the line to stretch the lead back to three.
In total, Heath hit seven of eight foul shots in the fourth and 8-of-9 in the game. Abington only missed three of its 15 foul shots in the fourth quarter, with Lucas Monroe going 4-of-4 and Young hitting three of his four tries. All of them were needed with South able to get inside Abington’s defense and draw contact.
“It’s huge, we made some subs and put in Young who’s a good foul shooter,” Grasty said. “We felt we could get them in the bonus and knock some foul shots and pull away that way. We were fortunate enough to be able to do that.”
Waddington had two foul shots of his own to cut the lead back to one again at 48-47. Monroe got fouled and sank both then Young came up with a needed play, stealing a deflected pass and getting foul going up to score, splitting the shots and making it a two-possession game.
Again it was needed because Wadding refused to cool off, halving the lead with 1:12 to go. With 58.4 left, Heath sank two more freebies then the Ghosts had to survive a long South possession that saw them get a couple of extra chances before Young rose up between two taller players and grasped the rebound despite getting fouled. The reserve followed that up with two makes at the line and Abington led 55-49 with 16 seconds left.
Young had the two big plays, but James was equally important, navigating screens and hounding the ball on defensive possessions.
“They’re really good defensively, they’re scrappy and they can handle the ball,” Heath said. “It takes some pressure off of me, I love playing with them.”
Tom Doyle had a last punch for South, canning a try, but Heath was able to get the ball and sink two last foul shots with 8.5 left before Abington forced Waddington to take a desperation deep 3 that was short to secure the win.
The victory was Abington’s fifth straight and 10th in its last 11 games. Heath said the guards are clicking together and the big men are playing well with each other. Coming off a big win over archrival Pennsbury, Grasty said there was a little concern the Ghosts wouldn’t be ready Saturday, but the finish showed they most certainly were.
Being the defensive grinder off the bench isn’t the most glamorous role, but often, it’s those guys who make the plays that seal up a game. Abington keeps its guys ready so that when their time comes, they can deliver.
It’s the reason the Ghosts won on Saturday.
“That’s what we expect from those guys and they know it,” Grasty said. “Some nights it’s going to be their turn, other nights other guys will get a lot of minutes. We thought overall, they did what we wanted them to do.”