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District 1 6A: Dixon's huge outing propels Abington into quarterfinals

02/22/2017, 12:45am EST
By Will Slover

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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Coming into its first District 1 playoff game as a heavy favorite hasn’t always been kind to Abington.

Last season, when the Ghosts came into their first game in the PIAA District 1 AAAA tournament as the No. 6 team in the 32-team tournament, going against No. 27 Upper Dublin in Abington’s home gym, a win was all but guaranteed for the reigning Suburban One League champions. 

That is, until the wheels fell off for Abington and an Upper Dublin buzzer-beater to win the game ended Abington’s season much earlier than the Ghosts had planned. 

“Upper Dublin, it’s our motivation this year,” said sophomore forward Eric Dixon. “Our model is to make everyone pay for what Upper Dublin did to us.”

Making the other team pay is exactly what Abington did in its second time around, as the No. 3 Ghosts led wire-to-wire and sealed their bid to the PIAA 6A state tournament with a 48-32 win over the No. 19 Norristown Eagles. 

Dixon was a huge reason why Abington led from the opening tip as the 6-foot-7 lefty cashed in for a game-high 20 points in the win. 

After struggling early on and not connecting on a single field goal in the first quarter and only two field goals in the first half, Dixon found his groove after halftime and was a problem for the Norristown defense for the entirety of the second half, connecting on five of his six field goal attempts after the intermission. 

“Teams come out and play me differently every game. Usually it takes me until about halftime or so to figure it out and I just tried to come out and take advantage of what I saw,” Dixon said. “I just found the sweet spot in the defense and got to it.”

On top of his impressive offensive showing, Dixon also reeled in 13 rebounds and blocked two shots on the defensive end. 

“It’s playoff basketball,” Dixon said. “At this point, you have to do more than just score the basketball and Coach (Charles Grasty) tells me that and I try to put it into action.”

Aiding Dixon’s stout effort was an 18-point, four-assist, three-rebound showing from junior guard Robbie Heath

Outside of Dixon and Heath though, the Ghosts struggled offensively as they only scored ten points outside of the duo, shot just 15-of-41 (.366) from the field, and turned the ball over 21 times, with a majority of those blunders coming in the first half. 

“That’s credit to Coach (Mike) Evans and that Norristown team. They’re scrappy, they get a bunch of loose balls, the 50/50 balls they seem to get and they use their length well,” Abington head coach Charles Grasty said. “Our energy was a lot higher in the 2nd half. We came out and rushed a bunch of shots early but after that we settled down in the second half.”

Though he didn’t turn in an impressive performance on the offensive end, Abington sophomore guard Lucas Monroe affected the game on the defensive end, reeling in six rebounds and tallying a number of steals along with altering countless other passes with his long 6-foot-5 frame. 

“Lucas has been doing that all year. He’s not the type of kid that’s going to take 18-to-20 shots a game,” Grasty said. “He does a lot of the small things. He gets a bunch of rebounds, he uses his length so he helped also.”

After having to wait eight days to play its next game following a 70-66 win over Plymouth-Whitemarsh in the Suburban One League championship game on February 14th and then earning a bye in the first round of the district tournament, the Ghosts’ slow first-half start may have been caused by the rust that piled up over the eight-day wait. 

“There’s some times you get a little rusty after those long breaks but I just thought we had some unforced errors, unforced turnovers and got kind of relaxed with the ball.” Grasty said. “I thought in that third quarter and that fourth quarter, though, we did a better job of taking care of the ball.”

Although Norristown couldn’t get anything going offensively, shooting just 13-of-49 (.265) from the field, sophomore guard Mickeel Allen turned in a solid night, scoring seven points and reeling in 10 rebounds.

After securing that first elusive win in district play and guaranteeing itself a spot in the PIAA 6A state tournament, Abington will now look to repeat its 2015 performance and win the District 1 title yet again.

But first, Abington must go through No. 11 Penn Wood, who disposed of No. 6 Pennsbury by a score of 71-55 on Tuesday night, in the quarterfinal round on Friday.

“It definitely feels good to know we’re automatically in states now,” Grasty said. “We get to enjoy it for a little bit and come to practice tomorrow and get back to work.”

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In other District 1 6A action….

No. 1 Perkiomen Valley 68, No. 16 Garnet Valley 60 (OT)
Justin Jaworski led the way with 34 points as the Vikings survived a tough challenge from the Jaguars. Garnet Valley’s Brandon Starr sent it into the extra session with a 3-pointer with five seconds to spare, but Perk Valley’s senior star was too much to be contained, hitting four key foul shots as GV went scoreless in OT. Garnet Valley was paced by Starr with 23 points; junior Austin Laughlin chipped in 17 for the Jaguars.

No. 2 Plymouth-Whitemarsh 62, No. 18 Central Bucks East 43
After leading just 8-7 following the first quarter, P-W used a balanced scoring attack to blow the gates open and make its way back to the district quarterfinals for the third season in a row. Ish Horn and Ahmad Williams led the way with 19 and 12, respectively, while Kareem Breeden (10) and 7-footer Naheem McLeod (8) chipped in with solid showings as well.

No. 4 Coatesville 56, No. 13 Downingtown West 46
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No. 5 North Penn 55, No. 21 Hatboro-Horsham 45
Clifton Moore got the Hatters off to a quick start with nine points and five rebounds in the opening quarter, but the Knights slowly took control of the game to book their spot in the state playoffs. Thanks to a 17-9 third quarter, the Knights were able to pull away from the Hatters, keeping the game just out of reach in the fourth. Senior forward and Merrimack commit David Giuliani had 13 points and 13 rebounds, while his classmate Reece Udinksi added 12 points in the Knights win.

No. 11 Penn Wood 71, No. 6 Pennsbury 55
The only upset of the night belongs to the Patriots, who made the long trip up from Lansdowne to Fairless Hills to knock off the Falcons. Penn Wood outscored Pennsbury 22-16 in the second quarter before a 13-0 third quarter run helped them secure the upset. Shariff Goff led the Patriots with 18 points while Javon Lindsey-Terrell added 15. St. Francis (Pa.) commit Mark Flagg scored 22 points for the Falcons.

No. 7 Conestoga 77, No. 10 Lower Merion 57
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No. 8 Cheltenham 66, No. 9 Spring-Ford 52
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