City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Penn Charter coach Jim Phillips likes the fact that he can go to his bench and get production, even as he goes nine or ten deep into his Quakers roster.

So far this season, that hasn’t been just a luxury -- it’s been a necessity.

Though a 60-46 win over Abington Friends on Tuesday afternoon moved Penn Charter to 3-0 on the young season, it wasn’t nearly as promising right out of the gate.

Penn Charter began the game almost instantly in a 10-0 hole, thanks to an Abington Friends squad that was forcing turnovers, getting out in transition and making its layups out of the gate.

“It’s probably my infinite wisdom that I try to impart on the children pregame, probably cripples their ability to perform,” Phillips quipped.

It was a pair of juniors, Dylan Topaz and Ryan Maloney, as well as freshman Matt Slowinski who provided the spark off the bench.

Phillips turned to his reserves once the deficit hit its largest about three minutes in, and almost instantly the comeback started with a Slowinski triple. By the end of the quarter the deficit had been narrowed to 12-9, part of a long stretch that eventually put Penn Charter up 27-19 at the break.

Topaz was right in the mix, hitting a triple in the second quarter that pushed the run to 16-2 and turned a one-point lead into a four-point advantage. The 5-11 guard, who also plays on Penn Charter’s golf team with a four handicap, showed some savvy play-making abilities, with several quick passes in transition to set his teammates up.

“I like to bring energy and hopefully make some shots and get the team going, and hopefully me coming in, passing it, shooting it will get the team going,” he said. “Because we started off a little slow, I try to come in and give our team a little boost.”

But Abington Friends persisted, outscoring its host 14-6 in the third quarter to knot the ballgame up at 33-33 entering the fourth.

Once again, it was up to the reserves to overcome their team’s inertia and get momentum going the right direction.

“What I thought is, it’s 0-0, we had eight minutes left in the game so let’s get up, let’s go,” Topaz said. “It started with a couple big shots from a couple players and within two minutes we were up nine or 12 and they just never came back.”

Senior wing Will Samuel broke the tie with a triple, followed by one from Topaz and then a three-point play by Maloney on a baseline drive that pushed the advantage to nine. Senior guard Mason Williams, who had a game-high 18 points, followed with a 3-pointer of his own to put it in double figures.

Senior guard Jake Nicastro added his only six points on perfect foul shooting down the stretch.

Topaz finished with 12 points, five assists, three rebounds and three steals. Maloney added nine points, four boards and two assists.

Everybody in the rotation filled a role -- like senior forward Ryan Dickson, who didn’t attempt a shot but came up with four clutch rebounds, all on the offensive end.

“We went a solid nine today and there’s varying skillsets within that nine, but I think the nine gave us solid minutes and let us get some depth,” Phillips said. “True, we don’t have much size, but we have a whole lot of inter-changable parts, we have a lot of guys who can be in different places and ad-lib from there.”

Abington Friends was paced by 14 points from senior Ace Bibbs, who was a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor and also grabbed five steals.

As a member of the Inter-Ac League, whose members play in the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association (PAISAA) tournament at the end of the year, Penn Charter doesn’t have to worry about his team picking up wins for any district ranking purposes. Instead, it’s about preparing for the 10-game league slate, which starts in January with a game against league favorite The Haverford School.

Coming off a 13-13 season last year that saw them go just 2-8 in Inter-Ac play, the Quakers have much more in mind than just winning their first three games of the year.

“We’re just worrying about getting us a little better game-to-game, not worried so much about breaking the other team down on film and trying to take away things,” Phillips said. “By the time it strikes January and league play, we better be ready to play.”