City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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FORT WASHINGTON — Abril Bowser seems custom-made for Abington basketball.

At just 5-foot-1, the senior guard isn’t very tall — a trait she shares with a lot of the Ghosts’ other rotation players — but anyone foolish enough to overlook her usually learns fast why that’s a bad idea. On offense, she’s a productive outside shooter with a little bit of game off the bounce and on defense, she’s just constantly around the ball and often taking it away from the other team.

Tuesday, Bowser put it all to work in the fourth quarter as she sparked Abington to an important 46-34 come-from-behind win over Upper Dublin.

“We started locking in, taking it one step at a time, doing what we gotta do to win the little things and playing defense,” Bowser said. “We started putting pressure on them and when we’re able to rotate, everything falls into place and everybody can defend their player without getting beat.”

Bowser was tremendous in the final stage of the game, scoring 10 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter and collecting three of her five steals in the frame. The senior hit a pair of 3-pointers, one from each corner, during a 16-0 Ghosts run that opened the quarter with the first putting her team in the lead for good.

A four-year varsity player, a mainstay starter each of the last two seasons, Bowser’s been a part of a lot of big games and big moments in her time with Abington. She had a couple Division III programs in the picture but the energetic guard got a breakthrough late last week when she picked up her first Division II offer from West Virginia Wesleyan.

“It was amazing, it was unreal,” Bowser said. “I felt like everybody was still overlooking me because of my height. I felt happy when I got that and I ended up turning up that game too (Friday against Hatboro-Horsham).”

The game Tuesday had plenty of implications for both teams at the league level and even beyond that. Upper Dublin still had an outside shot of a share of the SOL Liberty title and was on the bubble for the eight-team SOL Tournament but on a more macro level, the Cardinals were looking to finally finish off a quality opponent in a playoff-level game and try to improve their district standing.

A sluggish end to the first quarter -— capped by Abington’s Piper McGinley hitting a three at the horn — left the Cardinals behind the entirety of the second quarter and they trailed 23-16 at the half. When the third quarter began, it looked like a different UD team had come out of its locker room and a 12-0 run to take back control of the game followed.

UD coach Morgan Funsten pointed out his team scored in the third and Abington didn’t, so the Ghosts couldn’t set up their trademark pressure defense. When that changed in the fourth, the Cardinals weren’t able to recover.

“We’ve been here already this year,” Funsten said. “We have to find a way to become more consistent, and I have to find a way to put the girls in better spots so that down the stretch, we can finish one of these games. We’re obviously there for long stretches but if we want to become a really good team, we have to find a way to finish these games.”

Bowser’s 17 led all scorers but she had plenty of help from Cire Worley, who scored 15 and McGinley, who tallied four of her nine plus two assists in the pivotal fourth quarter. Maya Johnson only scored one basket, but it came at a key time in the third to snap the UD run and she added three assists.

McGinley also had a tall order defensively shadowing Upper Dublin’s Amy Ngo, who was coming off a 31-point game on Friday. Ngo finished with eight, scoring six in the Cardinals’ favorable third, but otherwise had No. 11 all over her. It was an assignment McGinley, who assisted the Bowser go-ahead three, knew was important to keeping her team in the SOL Liberty picture.

“I knew they wanted to set a lot of screens for her so she could get a lot of open looks,” McGinley said. “Since she’s still coming off her injury, I knew she isn’t as fast as she used to be — she’ll get there eventually — but I just had to keep her in front of me and not let her get her shot off.”

Megan Ngo led Upper Dublin with 13 points, earning praise from Abington coach Dan Marsh after the game, but had to try and navigate the relentless pressure of the Ghosts in the fourth quarter. Colleen Besachio scored six of her eight in the third quarter, adding 10 rebounds in the game to go with four blocks and a steal.

Marsh took blame for the third, saying he started to get panicked and his players followed suit, noting they were treating a five-point deficit like they were down 20 points late in the third.

“We were chirping back and forth in the huddle and finally I said we need to take a deep breath, we all need to relax and rely on what we do,” Marsh said. “We needed to start pressuring them, start getting them into the fast game and we were able to do that.”

Instead of totally spiraling out, Abington scored two late baskets in the third, chopping the lead to 30-27 going into the fourth. Abington then exploded to start the final stanza, at one point forcing four consecutive UD turnovers to fuel the turnaround.

“We had to go back to where we started and that’s defense,” Bowser said. “Once we started putting the pressure on them it started going our way.

“When we started to play defense, we got steals and they had to figure out who they wanted guarding the ball which left a shooter open. We were able to knock down shots and get open looks.”

Marsh likes to say his team is at its best “thriving in the chaos,” and while Abington may not always be the most rigid X’s and O’s team, they have ways to get points. Generally, the Ghosts’ best chances come after a turnover when the opposing team is still scrambling to recover and inevitably, someone is left alone.

Tuesday, that happened to be Bowser who not only had the two corner threes, but added another wide-open layup off a nice find by McGinley.

“Every practice,” Bowser said. “Every practice. The last 10 minutes is just drive-and-kicks, it’s mandatory.”

Ironically, the Ghosts now become the Cardinals’ biggest backers. Upper Dublin hosts Plymouth Whitemarsh — the Colonials holding a one-game lead in the SOL Liberty table — on Thursday and with the Ghosts off until Friday night, a few of them were planning to attend Thursday’s game.

It’s getting to be the time of year where crazier and crazier things start to happen and that’s just where Marsh wants his team to be.

“We’re just thriving in chaos,” Bowser said.

“But he’s always been saying that,” McGinley added.

By Quarter

ABINGTON 15 | 8 | 4 | 19 || 46

UPPER DUBLIN 10 | 6 | 14 | 4 || 34

Scoring

A: Abril Bowser 17, Cire Worley 15, Piper McGinley 9, Jordyn Reynolds 3, Maya Johnson 2

UD: Megan Ngo 13, Colleen Besachio 8, Amy Ngo 8, Nora Brady 5