City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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BENSALEM, Pa. -- The Central Bucks West defense was swarming, and Abington couldn’t break free.

The Bucks’ matchup zone was stifling the Ghosts inside and out despite a significant size advantage, but at the other end the open shots just weren’t falling for Adam Sherman’s senior-laden squad.

It was a fragile balance in the second-ever Suburban One League championship game, both teams giving their all on the defensive end while points were difficult to come by. Three-point shots felt like five-pointers. Runs of five felt like 15.

Finally, C.B. West was to muster just enough together, smothering Abington in the fourth quarter to take home the Suburban One League title with a hard-fought, 39-34 win.

The Bucks took home the trophy despite making extra three field goals in each quarter, scoring fewer than 10 points in each period up until a 15-point fourth. For the game, they were 12-of-47 (25.5 percent), including 4-of-23 (17.4 percent) from 3-point range.

“We got a lot of open looks, just for some reason we couldn’t put the ball in the basket. But I thought the guys showed a lot of grit, I thought they defended really well to make up for their lack of shooting,” Sherman said. “We just had to weather the storm and find a run at the right time, and fortunately we did.”

Trailing 29-24 heading into the fourth quarter of a game they led for most of the first half, Central Bucks West scored the first seven points of the final stanza.

The crucial bucket was a 3-point play by sophomore forward Jake Reichwein which put West back on top, 30-29 with 6:05 remaining. The Bucks did not trail from that point onwards against the defending league champs, who won the first-ever tournament last year.

Reichwein, the younger brother of senior standout and Lafayette commit Cal Reichwein, came up big in a reserve role with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting with eight rebounds against a towering Abington frontcourt.

“He’s a stud,” said Cal, who was held to two points as he recovers from a knee injury that cost him three weeks in January. “He works as hard as he can, he’s really a bull under the rim, I tell him just to get everybody rebound you can, and he’s a fighter, so that’s what he tries to do.”

Cal picked up two fouls in the first minute of the first quarter, which meant that the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Jake was left to help 6-4, 185-pound senior forward Erich Hohlenheitner guard Abington’s frontcourt duo of 6-7 Jake O’Brien and 6-6, 250-pound freshman Eric Dixon.

Dixon had a quiet first half with only two points as he was constantly double and triple-teamed on every touch by the Bucks defense.

He woke up in the third quarter with two 3-pointers and a bucket to help the Ghosts establish a 29-24 lead after three, but could only manage a last-second layup in the fourth for the last of his 13 points as he was largely held in check by the undersized Bucks.

“There’s not many Dixon’s out there, for a freshman he’s unbelievable,” Sherman said. “We just felt like we had to get the ball out of his hands and have quick rotations and we were able to do that.”

The only scoring West got in that third quarter was seven points from Hohenleitner, a 6-4 forward who led the Bucks with 15 points on the evening.

His layup with a minute left made it a five-point lead, though it took 1-and-1 conversions by Billy Power (six points) and Cal Reichwein in the final minute to truly seal the win.

“We just keep working on it, trying to stay composed and get a good shot, even when shots aren’t falling like today,” Hohenleitner said. “We wanted to drive on them, get them in foul trouble, get to the free throw line.”

While C.B. West struggled to find its shot, Abington was equally rusty from the field. The Ghosts finished 11-of-43 (25.5 percent) overall and 4-of-18 (22.2 percent) from 3-point range, including 1-of-14 in the fourth quarter.

After the Bucks took their lead, a still-young group of Ghosts had a few rushed shots down the stretch, including an ill-advised forced layup or two with the game still in reach.

"I told them about it, that’s not our style, it was uncharacteristic of our team taking shots like that,” Ghosts coach Charles Grasty said. “We like to go right up the other team’s chest, but I thought we backed down a couple of times and that’s not our style, that’s not the way we run our program.”

Both teams will continue their seasons as top-10 seeds in the District 1 AAAA tournament. Abington, the No. 6 seed, gets No. 27 Upper Dublin while No. 7 C.B. West hosts No. 26 Downingtown East; both games are on Friday at 7 PM.