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District 1 6A: Abington shakes off rust, beats SOL rival Neshaminy

02/21/2018, 12:45am EST
By Ari Glazier

Lucas Monroe (above) and Abington shook off a SOL playoff loss to CB West to bounce back in districts. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Ari Glazier (@AriGlazier)
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Abington head coach Charles Grasty didn’t get much sleep the night before Tuesday’s second round District One 6A matchup against Neshaminy. The Suburban One National-winning Ghosts had underwhelmed in their last game, a 10-point loss to CB West in the SOL semi-final on February 10.

The No. 2 seed Ghosts had plenty of time to ponder over that loss and watch the first round of districts from the sideline.

The pressure mounted even further, Grasty knowing that the winner in Tuesday’s would clinch a berth in the state playoffs.

There was more than a hint of familiarity between the two squads. Abington and Neshaminy had met twice in league play, with Abington winning both by a comfortable margin. That didn’t seem to give Grasty any solace.

“It takes a lot off of me as a coach,” Grasty said. “You want to win this game knowing that you can get into states, guarantee three more games...just not knowing how kids are gonna come out and shoot it, and knowing what kind of energy they’re gonna come out with.

It was pretty clear after a first half where Abington outscored Neshaminy by 21 in the first half, that Grasty’s reservations were misplaced. The Ghosts didn’t let up in the second half and went home with a commanding 71-41 victory.

“They impressed me, they came out with a lot of energy,” Grasty said. They were hungry because of that week off, they were upset with the CB West loss. They wanted to get right back at it, they were sick of practicing, sick of hearing me yell, sick of going through our practice stuff. They were ready to come out tonight.

“Now hopefully I can catch up on some sleep.”

The key to such a lopsided victory for the Ghosts was containing Neshaminy senior point guard Chris Arcidiacono. For that Grasty turned to Lucas Monroe.

Monroe, a 6-5 junior guard, was tasked with guarding Arcidiacono for the majority of the night. He was up to the task, holding Arcidiacono to 12 points on 5-of-15 from the field.

“I think I did a good job of pressuring him so that he wasn’t able to just relax and walk the ball up the court,” Monroe said. “I’s helpful because it tires him out a little bit and he might have as much arc on his shots; he might not be able to hit those shots. And then I used my length to get a hand in on his shot. I made him take some kind of hard shots. It’s really just making him work and not get anything easy.”

The rest of Abington’s defense stepped up as well, holding every other Neshaminy player to single-digit scoring.

Monroe was a major contributor on the other side of the ball as well. He boasted a well rounded line of 11 points on 4-of-6 from the field, six assists, and five rebounds. He was joined by fellow junior Eric Dixon, who led Abington in scoring with 19 points to go along with five boards. Senior guard Robbie Heath pitched in twelve points, five rebounds, and four assists.

“That first half we shared the ball,” Grasty said. The guys understand that we don’t care about points, we want to try to reach our goals. ‘We have some goals that we set, and we’re trying to reach them, so who cares about how many points we score’.

That unselfish attitude was on full display in Abington’s dominant in transition on Tuesday. Whenever Heath or Monroe grabbed a rebound, the entire team streaked towards the other end of the court, while the Neshaminy defense barely had time to react. Both guards did a fantastic job making the right passes in fast breaks, and finding their teammates with easy looks.

“That’s us at our best,” Monroe said. “when we get a good defensive possession, box out, one of us is able to get a rebound and push it. We’re off to the races and guys get layups and everyone wants to play, everyone wants to play defense, everyone wants to rebound. It sets a chain reaction.”

Tuesday's victory was sweet, but there’s no rest for the weary. Abington hosts seventh seed Norristown this Friday at seven.

“We’ll enjoy this win, but we’ll put this one behind us,” Grasty said. “We’ve got Norristown here on Friday. We’ll get right back at it. The guys know that there aren’t a lot of teams left playing for the District Championship, if you slip up you’ll be playing for seeding.”


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