City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Heading into the fourth quarter of a tied District 1 6A playoff game, Abington needed some kind of boost to pull away from an energetic Coatesville side.

Joseph O’Brien had just the fix.

The senior forward locked eyes with classmate Rob Young on the Ghosts’ first possession of the fourth quarter, and didn’t need to say a word.

Young threw up a lob from the left wing as O’Brien took four steps down the baseline and rose up for a thunderous dunk.

“I try and get one every game,” he said. “I think I’ve missed five this year, [dunks in] five games. But it’s fun for me, I like to jump.”

“I knew it was coming,” Young said. “Their back guy was cheating up a little too far.”

The dunk happened right in front of the school’s student sections, sending the 600-or-so Abington students who made the trek out to the Main Line into a frenzy.

“It’s crazy because when you’re running back you just hear the roar of the crowd,” O’Brien said, “and it motivates you.”

O’Brien doesn’t look like someone who’d typically get above-the-rim on dunks at 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, but according to head coach Charles Grasty, his looks can be quite deceiving.

“Actually, Joe’s probably our most athletic player,” the Ghost skipper said. “You’d be surprised, man. He runs well, he jumps well, he threw a football 60 yards the other day. He’s really athletic.”

Much more than just an entertaining play, O’Brien’s slam set the tone for a big-time fourth quarter as Abington ran away for a 57-51 win and its second district title in three years.

He finished with six points and seven rebounds in the win, as well as a block. That followed up on a semifinal performance where he had 13 points, seven boards and two rejections.

The dunk started an 11-0 run, which broke wide open a game that saw the Ghosts and Red Raiders tied after both the second and third quarters.

Abington never looked back.

“We’ve been trying that a little bit this year, when we need some energy, that’s one of our energy plays that we go to,” head coach Charles Grasty said. “High school guys, they like to see dunks, and sometimes you just have to play some mind games a little bit to try to get them to play some defense.

“We thought that sparked us, we were able to get some stops right after that...we were able to lock down defensively and we got some more baskets in transition.”

O’Brien shared an emotional hug with his mother after celebrating with his teammates in the trophy ceremony. It was certainly a weight off the back of the young forward, who sat on the bench injured when his teammates took down Plymouth-Whitemarsh on Temple’s court in 2015.

This time, in a venue he’d been hoping to play in for a decade, O’Brien had his time to shine.

“It was ridiculous, it motivated me every day,” he said. “I told my dad when I was eight years old, I’d play on this floor some day, and it came true today.”