Fast start propels Plymouth Whitemarsh past Abington for SOL Liberty title

WHITEMARSH >> By the time the ball left Abby Sharpe’s hand, the fuse was as good as lit.

All the Colonials needed to get their SOL Liberty Division title-clinching night going was a little spark, so they decided to instead just have one big explosion. Sharpe hit back-to-back threes, Jordyn Thomas knocked in a try and by the time Erin Daley sank a pair of free throws, the game wasn’t yet two minutes old and the Colonials led by 11 points.

PW’s blast-off start carried it to a 58-46 win over visiting Abington, sewing up a third straight outright SOL title — the last two in the Liberty — and regular season sweep of the Ghosts on Tuesday night.

“People thought we were leaving the game at their gym (a 64-57 win on Jan. 27) happy. We weren’t,” Daley said. “We weren’t fully satisfied with the way we played and we knew to beat them a second time, we’d have to do everything even better.”

That also applied to the start. In the first meeting, the Colonials (20-0, 15-0 SOL Liberty) zoomed out to a 10-0 lead but would eventually give it all back as Abington’s tenacious pressure defense sped PW up and unsettled the team’s normally in-control offense. Once again, it was PW jumping out early with the three early longballs each assisted by a different player and the hosts holding 11-0 with 6:12 left in the first quarter.

This time, there was no letting up and even after Abington (16-3, 12-2 SOL Liberty) finally got on the board two minutes in, PW ripped off an 8-0 run in response. Again, when the Ghosts scored seven straight, PW senior Kaitlyn Flanagan orchestrated a 7-2 run to close the frame by assisting two baskets and getting one of her own for a 26-11 lead.

It was Flanagan who found Sharpe, who finished with a team-best 19 points, for the first trey nine seconds in and the Colonials were off from there.

“Their press really rattled us the first time,” Flanagan, who had four of her five assists in the first quarter, said. “We had way too many turnovers that they converted into points and we came in with a better idea how we were going to break their press and be stronger with the ball.”

All PW had to do on Tuesday was win to claim that third straight SOL title. It was the fifth in the last six years for the program and the first streak of three consecutive outright titles since the 1967-69 seasons, per the Colonials coaching staff.

Abington needed a win to keep its avenues of at least a share of the division crown open but instead found itself looking up at a sizable deficit early on.

“That’s the game really,” Ghosts coach Dan Marsh said. “I boil it down to inexperience. They’re a senior-laden team and they came ready to play and came ready to win a championship.

“We weren’t. We were shell-shocked then start getting frustrated and trying to make everything happen at one time instead of doing what we do.”

The Colonials lost some of their steam in the second quarter as Abington’s press started to create a little havoc and Daley, after a solid opening frame, went scoreless while being tagged with three personal fouls. The Ghosts won the frame 9-8 but still trailed 35-20 at the intermission as Daley and her teammates used the time to regroup.

Much like PW uses balance in its offense, the Colonials also have options defensively. With Daley in foul trouble, they could use Lainey Allen then Sharpe to guard Abington’s super junior Cire Worley but it didn’t mean the 6-foot Daley was taking herself out of the game.

Instead, the junior jolted herself and her team back on the right path with a five-point, two-block third quarter as PW opened up a 45-29 lead going to the final stanza.

“We needed the same intensity we had at the start of the game,” Daley said. “We couldn’t let them get back in it. We knew we had let up in the second quarter but it was time for us to go after them the way they came after us. I still have to be aggressive, even with the fouls, my team is trusting me out there.”

Flanagan isn’t usually a big scorer but the impact she has for the Colonials extends far, far beyond her point total. It’s something Marsh knows all too well and he didn’t want the senior and Holy Cross recruit to pick his team apart like she did the first meeting so Abington’s plan was geared to get the ball out of her hands as often as possible.

While Flanagan only had one assist after the opening quarter, her teammates did just fine by combining for six helpers and Sharpe stepped up by adding an increased workload on the ball to her scoring punch. With three seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup, the Colonials have a wealth of experience at this point and that’s what they leaned on every time Abington would creep back toward a single-digit deficit.

“In the halfcourt, when they’re still sending traps, in the last game that was where we struggled,” Flanagan said. “We just had to slow down and if they’re putting two on the ball, someone’s open. You just have to have that mentality, and when your girl leaves, talk, it was really just keeping it simple like that.”

Abington made a push late, spurred by Worley and Abril Bowser but could never get close enough to totally threaten the Colonials’ lead.

A few years ago, the Colonials ended up playing SOL Liberty rival Upper Dublin a total of four times. With the upcoming SOL tournament expanding to eight teams and with the District 1 and PIAA 6A playoffs to follow, there’s a strong chance Tuesday was not the last time the two get to face off.

“I think we’re two of the best teams in the state and that’s why I told our kids I think we’re going to see them again,” Marsh said. “We were able to score off their scores a couple times, we were able to get into what we wanted to do a couple times but couldn’t do it consistently enough. It comes back to you can’t bury yourself 11-0 against a good team, it becomes an impossible mountain to climb.”

For Colonials coach Dan Dougherty, the division title was a moment to celebrate and he noted the special atmosphere of doing it at home in a big game with a large, engaged crowd. PW has bigger goals in mind for this year, but Tuesday was a good summation of the team he has this year; balanced, mature and focused.

“It’s the way we play,” Dougherty said. “This is the time of year where you see a lot of kids scoring 1,000 points and we’ve gone through that here too but with this team, there are a lot of kids who can beat you. Scoring 26 points in the first quarter, it’s a credit to our kids watching film and understanding they didn’t play well but (Abington) didn’t play it’s best either and just learning from it.”

PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 58, ABINGTON 46
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 26 8 11 13 – 58
ABINGTON 11 9 9 17 – 46
PW: Kaitlyn Flanagan 1 3-4 5, Erin Daley 4 5-6 13, Abby Sharpe 6 4-4 19, Lainey Allen 4 0-1 8, Jordyn Thomas 5 2-2 13. Totals: 20 14-17 58.
A: Cire Worley 6 6-7 20, Abril Bowser 5 0-0 13, Jaida Helm 4 1-2 9, Maya Johnson1 0-2 2,Piper McGinley 1 0-0 2, Maura Day 0 0-2 0. Totals: 17 7-13 46.
3-pointers: PW – Sharpe 3, Thomas; A – Worley 2, Bowser 3.