Second-half sparks Abington boys basketball win over Pennsbury (VIDEO)
FAIRLESS HILLS – In a battle against Abington for first place in the Suburban One National League, visiting Pennsbury didn’t shoot well in the first half. Then again, the Ghosts didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard before the intermission, either.
While the Falcons trailed Abington at the break, they were still in the game, behind only six points at 17-11. Pennsbury’s shooting woes continued in the third period however and the home team came alive.
The Ghosts emerged from the locker room and posted a 12-3 run, taking a 32-17 lead into the fourth quarter in a 55-35 triumph that earned Abington sole possession of first place in the conference.
“We didn’t shoot well in the first half but we were still in the game,” said Falcons head coach Bill Coleman. “We stopped playing defense in the third period.”
And the fourth.
Abington (11-3, 7-1 SOL) lit up the scoreboard in the final frame, scoring 23 points on six field goals including three 3-pointers and 8-of-13 foul shooting. After being held to just four points before the break, sophomore Robbie Heath came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring seven of his game-high 16 points in the last period.
“Robbie played a big part in what we did last year,” said Ghosts head coach Charles Grasty. “He’s one of the more experienced players on this team and he has a very high basketball IQ. He knows that, defensively, if we get after it, everything else falls into place.”
As if they weren’t already in trouble before the intermission (Pennsbury shot an abysmal 3-for-20 before the break), the Falcons (9-5, 6-2 SOL) returned from the locker room only to see Abington senior Jack Steinman start the third period off with a 3-point play on a one-hander off the glass and the and-one.
Heath drew a foul on Pennsbury junior forward Isaiah Carpenter, made 1-of-2 at the line, then after a miss by the visitors, slapped the ball off of Carpenter’s knee and into the stands populated by the Falcon student sheering section.
Trailing by 11 a minute into the third period, it was around that point you just knew this was not going to end well for Pennsbury.
While Abington turned the ball over on its next two possessions, the Falcons failed to take advantage. On a drive down the lane, Carpenter had the ball locked up by a Ghost defender and junior Mark Flagg (8 pts.) missed 1-of-2 free throws.
Meanwhile, Abington got a basket from freshman forward Eric Dixon (11 pts.) on a turnaround hook shot, then two more on back-to-back buckets by senior Dion Greene, the first coming on a one-handed shovel shot and the second, a one-handed scoop off the glass. While Greene missed an ensuing free throw, Heath got to the line and hit a pair, putting the Ghosts on top, 29-14 with less than a minute to go in the third quarter.
“Dion is playing extremely well for us right now. He’s a football player so it took him a little while to get his basketball legs underneath him,” added Grasty. “Now, he’s doing what he has to do. He’s a tough kid who plays extremely hard and gives everything that he possibly can.
“He was able to get a couple baskets there to lead our team.”
Before the end of the period, Pennsbury turned the ball over for a third time in the stanza and Heath finished it off with an easy layup at the other end of the court.
With just six points in the period, the Falcons looked totally frustrated by Abington’s 2-3 zone defense.
“We’re an inside out team and the ball wasn’t getting inside at all,” explained Coleman.
“We settled for the first shot that we got, which is not what we want to do – we want to look for Isaiah and look for Mark at the elbows and it just didn’t happen.”
Making matters worse for Pennsbury, the Ghosts started off the fourth quarter with a six-point run. A free throw and layup by junior Joseph O’Brien (6 pts.) and a 3-pointer by Dixon put Abington up 38-17 less than three minutes into the final frame.
The Falcons got 3-balls of their own from Jake Martel and Flagg but those baskets only cut the gap to 16 points and time was running out. While Pennsbury senior Rob Daly (6 pts.) came through with an acrobatic layup on one end of the court, Heath drove the lane for an uncontested layup at the other to put the Ghosts up 44-25 with just 3:40 remaining in the contest.
At that point, the Falcon defense was practically non-existant.
“Our rhythm starts on D; it’s that simple,” said Coleman. “It doesn’t matter whether we’re making shots or not. If you can defend, you’re still in games, and we didn’t do that.”
Down the final stretch, Pennsbury junior Louie Bavas hit a layup and sophomore Obi Onuoha added a 3-pointer but Abington countered with a pair of jumpers by junior Eric Dougherty, one of which was good for three points.
The way the game started, it was hard to imagine the final flurry by the Ghosts. Abington shot an abysmal 3-for-12 in the first period and was shooting at less than 32 percent in the first two quarters, combined.
“It’s a league game. We were feeling each other out,” explained Grasty. “We stepped it up defensively and we got some easy baskets in transition and we were able to get going.
“We told them in the second half, just run the offense. We can get the same shots later and hopefully, they fall.”
For the Ghosts, they apparently did.
For the Falcons, who started the season by winning seven of their first eight, Pennsbury has lost three of its last four games and five of its last six.
“We came out firing on all cylinders and we had a chip on our shoulder. We were playing angry and teams were shocked by the amount of energy we were bringing.
“Some of the guys have gone away from that. We can’t expect to walk on the floor and expect people to say, ‘here, you’re Pennsbury; take it.’ It doesn’t work that way.
“Our guards have to do a better job of attacking the gaps. We have to look high-low and we have to look at the elbows and the blocks.”
“Every game, we have the guys in the right spots; it’s a matter of execution. Execution comes down to a mentality. The mentality, right now, is slightly off and we need to fix it.”
The Falcons, who lost four games to the Ghosts last year, defeated Abington 42-36 Dec. 10 in the league opener for both teams. Right now, for Pennsbury, that seems like it was light years ago.
Contact the author at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com, or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
Abington 55, Pennsbury 35
(Jan. 14 at Abington)
Pennsbury 5 6 6 18 – 35
Abington 7 10 15 23 – 55
PENNSBURY — Addison Howard 1 2-3 5; Isaiah Carpenter 2 2-4 6; Rob Daly 2 1-2 6; Mark Flagg 2 3-6 8; Corey Dea 1 0-0 2; Obi Onuoha 1 0-0 3; Jake Martel 1 0-0 3; Louie Bavas 1 0-0 2; TOTALS — 11 8-15 35.
ABINGTON — Eric Dixon 4 2-3 11; Robbie Heath 5 5-7 16; Jack Steinman 2 1-1 5; Dion Greene 2 2-3 6; Joe O’Brien 2 2-7 6; Brian Close 1 1-2 3; Donnell Wessels 0 2-2 2; Eric Dougherty 2 0-0 5; Robert Young 0 1-2 1; TOTALS — 18 16-27 55.
3-POINT GOALS: P — Howard, Daly, Flagg, Onuoha, Martel; A — Dixon, Heath, Dougherty.
