City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For the second game in a row, Josh Sharkey set the tone early.

It took the Archbishop Carroll senior all of 12 seconds on Saturday in a win over Academy New Church to strip his man, take the ball the other way and lay it in to give the Patriots the lead.

Against Abington on Tuesday night, it took him 14 seconds.

The 5-foot-10 guard, bound for Samford next year, has been one of the more ferocious on-ball defenders in the area the last four season, and he showed that why when he stripped Abington’s Rob Young of the ball and went the other way for an easy lay-up.

That sparked a dominant first quarter by Carroll, who led by as many as many as 38 in the second half of a 77-56 win.

“We try to come out and start the game by working hard on defense and defense turns into offense, so that’s really important to us,” Sharkey said. “We like to start off by playing good defense.”

The Patriots (2-0) did that indeed, forcing seven first-quarter turnovers by the Galloping Ghosts (2-1), scoring the first eight points and racing out to a 17-2 lead before the midway point of the period.

It was 30-10 by the time the first buzzer sounded, with Sharkey contributing seven points, two assists and three steals in the opening eight minutes alone.

“We definitely started with a great tone,” he said. “We came out with a lot of energy and got the ball up the court and the intensity was really high and I think we set the bar high for ourselves.”

By halftime, that lead had expanded to 50-25, and it was 68-30 late in the third quarter before Abington’s reserves were able to close the gap somewhat in the fourth against the Carroll bench.

“Once they jumped on us it was tough to recuperate, especially our young guys, they haven’t seen a team this fast year,” said Abington head coach Charles Grasty, who has two freshmen and one sophomore in his starting lineup. “They got out in transition, got a lot of transition baskets, we missed some shots early, didn’t get back, our transition defense struggled.”

Sharkey finished with 15 points, six steals and five assists, following up on a tremendous 17-point, nine-rebound, seven-assist outing in the win over ANC.

“Josh sets the tone for us, not only defensively but offensively,” said Carroll skipper Paul Romanczuk, now in his 14th year with the program. “There’s not too many better than Josh, both defensively and running the team and setting the tone, so he does a really good job for us.”

Sharkey’s defensive effort was contagious, as nearly every Carroll player who scored also chipped in a steal or two: John Rigsby and Colin Daly (10 points), Ryan Daly and Keyon Butler (9 points), Khari Williams (four points).

It’s something they’ll need to keep doing all year long, as Derrick Jones and his shot-blocking abilities are now at UNLV.

“We don’t have that rim protection like we had in the past, so backcourt pressure is really important to us,” Sharkey said. “Pressure their guards so they don’t beat us down scoring easy buckets.”

Abington was led by 6-foot-6 freshman forward Eric Dixon, who battled Carroll’s 6-8 senior Miks Antoms tough on the boards all night and finished with 12 boards, including a 3-pointer. Sophomore Robbie Heath, the team’s only returning starter, had 10 points, while the Ghosts’ other promising freshman Lucas Monroe, had nine, as did senior guard Donnell Wessels.

They'll all have to shake off the loss quickly, as the Ghosts have a big Suburban One League showdown on Thursday against archrival Pennsbury.

"I’m not like super-disappointed, obviously I wanted to see us compete a little more, but right now it’s early, I think our guys will respond," Grasty said. "We have a tough week this week and I think they’re ready to get right back at it, get practice tomorrow and watch some film and get ready for Pennsbury on Thursday.”

Antoms finished with six points and five rebounds (three offensive), while Butler, an athletic sophomore forward, added all five of his boards on the offensive end of the floor.

As a team, Carroll had 16 offensive rebounds after pulling in 19 against ANC.

“Those are just back-breaking points when you can get offensive rebounds and putbacks or offensive rebounds that lead to more fouls for the other team, or offensive rebounds for kick-outs for 3,” Romanczuk said. “Those are just backbreaking plays, so we’ve done a good job of pursuing the ball once it goes up there.”