Abington wraps up December with gutsy win over Penn Charter
PHILADELPHIA >> Asked if the last week was his idea of a Christmas present for his team, Dan Marsh had to laugh.
The Abington girls basketball coach certainly didn’t do his team a lot of favors in the last six days, with the Ghosts taking the court in five of them and in each of the last three. At the end of that gauntlet, which started over the weekend with a pair of games in the She Got Game Shore Games was defending Inter-Ac champion Penn Charter on Thursday night.
In a game that featured everything anybody would want from two of the best teams in the southeastern part of the state, it was the Ghosts outlasting a furious rally by the Quakers for a 67-63 win to wrap the first day of the Speedy Morris Invitational.
“December for us has been brutal and we’re 4-1 now in the six games I have control over,” Marsh said. “I said to my AD that ‘we need six games we could lose.’ We started out with Rustin and Souderton, we go play the No. 1 team in New York (Albertus Magnus), then Carroll and finally come here to play this extremely talented team.
“What happened last year, we got into the playoffs and I don’t think we competed at the level we wanted to because we didn’t play enough competition so this year, we wanted to make sure of it.”
Abington came into Thursday night’s game off back-to-back SOL Liberty wins over Wissahickon and Quakertown and it looked like the toll of games might have caught up to the Ghosts early on. Powered by a fast start from senior Bella Toomey, a Fairleigh Dickinson recruit, Penn Charter bolted out to an 8-0 lead while Abington kept turning the ball over.
Cire Worley finally got Abington on the board with a pair of free throws that came with 5:43 left in the first, the senior starting a 17-8 run to close the quarter. It would be more of a collective effort in the second half but for the first 16 minutes, it was the UMass-Lowell bound Worley carrying her team with 20 of her game-high 25 points and a 37-35 halftime lead.
Even matched up against a talented PC lineup that includes one of her closest friends in senior guard and St. Joe’s recruit Aleah Snead, Worley did her thing by mixing threes, post work, put-backs and getting to the line.
“If you watch me play, I’m always a chill player, I don’t play up to anybody and I play at my pace,” Worley said. “I think that was smart for us because they were going fast but I was slowing them down and I felt like I could hit shots at a good pace.”
Normally, it’s the Ghosts putting the onus on the opponent to play faster than they want to and speeding the game up. Marsh noted that wasn’t an issued against PC, which despite not using a shot clock on Thursday, had no trouble looking to push the ball on offense and get after it on defense.
Ryan Carter, an eighth-grader who has looked anything but playing up with the Quakers’ varsity squad, beat the first-half buzzer to make it a one-possession game and in her 21-point effort, hit a pair of clutch fourth quarter threes that pushed the Ghosts to the brink.
Abington got through the night thanks to a player it wasn’t sure it was even going to have earlier in the day. In Wednesday’s game against Quakertown, junior Jordyn Reynolds had taken a blow to the head that left her with a headache, a sore jaw and being checked for a concussion.
Reynolds was cleared and assuring Marsh she was good to go, came through in a major way with 18 points.
“I give it up to my teammates,” Reynolds said. “They’re really helping me with my confidence and we’re all playing hard together.
“When we play together and we play hard like we know we can, then that’s when we’re unstoppable.”
Reynolds had five points in the first half, but opened the third quarter with a three then had the assist on a circus-type shot by Worley that kicked off a 13-1 run. Worley said the shot, which was a reverse layup that she put up thinking it would draw contact, was more unorthodox looking than anything and she works on getting those type of finishes.
The senior would like to avoid the way she finished on Thursday, having to sit the final 2:54 of the fourth after picking up her fifth foul on a very late whistle defending in the post.
“I knew my teammates had my back,” Worley said. “I did my part and I knew they’d get us to the finish line.”
Sparked by a pair of threes by Reynolds and a typically active Piper McGinley surge — which featured the junior hitting a three and assisting two others — the Ghosts broke open a close game and led by as many as 14 before PC closed to 12 going into the final quarter. The Quakers were only just getting started.
Ramping up their on-ball defense, the Quakers got back to flustering Abington with Snead and Kaylinn Bethea forcing a couple turnovers while Carter and Gracie Shoup were all over denying any of the space the Ghosts had taken just a quarter earlier. Aside from an off night at the foul line, it was all PC for about five minutes to open the final frame with the hosts chopping the lead all the way down to 57-55 .
Then, Reynolds bailed Abington out.
“She came in with a completely different mindset and I said immediately, ‘she’s ready,’” Marsh said. “She played hurt tonight, she was a little banged up but she was telling me the whole time, ‘I’m good, Coach.’
“She’s so good with the ball, I knew she could get to the rim and she can finish.”
On a play that barely got off to begin with, Maya Johnson just beating the five second count to inbound to Reynolds, the guard was able to draw a match-up on a post at the top of the arc. With Marsh urging her to go to the rim and her teammates spacing out, Reynolds did just that and attacked the basket, getting a tough shot to fall while going out of bounds and drawing a whistle for her efforts.
“My first thought was ‘yes!’ then my next was ‘I better get back on defense,” Reynolds said.
The traditional three-point play put the Ghosts up five, the after Carter hit the first of her two late deep balls, Reynolds was able to get to the line for a one-and-one, calmly knocking down both efforts. Those were also clutch, as Carter replied but hitting from even further out to make it a one-point game with 80 seconds left.
Reynolds had one more big play in her, scoring a layup with 38 seconds left to put Abington up three and the Ghosts defense held, getting help from a key offensive foul late.
Marsh did have a gift for his team in the form of a day off on Friday, although the players were planning to get together for their own holiday party and keep the good vibes rolling. The Ghosts have been through the ringer already, but they know it will benefit them later on this winter.
“I like this team, they like each other and our chemistry is great,” Marsh said. “Cire has been a tremendous leader. She pulled them all together and got them ready, she’s been great and it’s been fantastic to see. These tests have been great for us.”
ABINGTON 67, PENN CHARTER 63
ABINGTON 17 20 20 10 — 67
PENN CHARTER 16 19 10 18 — 63
A: Cire Worley 9 4-4 25, Maya Johnson 2 5-6 9, Abril Bowser 3 0-0 8, Jordyn Reynolds 6 3-3 18, Piper McGinley 3 0-0 7. Totals: 23 12-13 67
PC: Kaylinn Bethea 4 1-4 11, Bella Toomey 10 0-0 20, Aleah Snead 3 3-8 9, Ryan Carter 9 0-0 21, Gracie Shoup 1 0-0 2. Totals: 27 4-12 63
3-pointers: A – Worley 3, Reynolds , Bowser 2, McGinley; PC – Carter 3, Bethea 2
