City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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PLYMOUTH MEETING — All three times that Suburban One rivals Abington and Plymouth Whitemarsh had faced off this year, Abington had built up lead, only to watch Plymouth Whitemarsh come back the last two times to grab one-point wins, most recently in the Suburban One League semifinals.

So when the Ghosts once again jumped out to a big early lead on the Colonials in a win-or-go-home elimination game in the District 1 6A playbacks, Dan Marsh knew that Abington just had to hold on. 

“I wanted to make sure that we stayed focused because I knew that they were going to make a run,” he said. “This team never quits, PW never quits, they’re going to run at you, that’s what we were focusing on, they’re going to come at you, we’ve got to persevere.”

At the time of the season when it mattered most, Marsh’s girls listened. 

After opening up a 15-point lead early in the second quarter, Abington never let Plymouth Whitemarsh get closer than six the rest of the way, getting some timely shooting from the 3-point arc and foul line to hold on for a 46-38 win and qualify for the state tournament.

“Ultimately that’s what the goal is,” Marsh said of playing in the state tournament, where his Ghosts lost in the second round last year. “So we’re happy about that, obviously we’re not happy about being in this situation, but you’ve got to deal with the hands you’re dealt and we came out and we played phenomenal defense from the start to the finish, and I’m really proud of them.”

It was a game that was supposed to be a quarterfinal, though both No. 3 PW and No. 6 Abington lost in their second-round matchups, upset by No. 19 Upper Dublin and No. 11 Pennsbury respectively. So it was that they were meeting not for a chance to go to the district semifinal, but just for a berth in states itself, the winner getting two games for seeding purposes while the loser was done for the season.

That meant the end of the high school career for either Abington’s Cire Worley (UMass-Lowell) and her fellow seniors or PW’s 1,000-point duo of Abby Sharpe (Penn) and Erin Daley, along with their classmates. And the first three had been as tight as possible, the two teams with 147 points each in their meetings this year.

Worley made a statement early on with a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers and a driving layup, part of a game-opening 19-4 stretch that spanned the first quarter and first couple minutes of the second, a 15-point gap that the hosts could never quite recover from. Sophomore guard Maya Johnson added a 3-pointer during the stretch, as did junior Jordyn Reynolds and senior Abril Bowser, setting the tone for a night where Abington went 7-of-15 from deep.

“We’re the best (offensively) when we’re sharing and moving the ball, and I think today everybody got some touches,” Worley said. “One day this person’s on, one person’s this person on, and we take pride in that because we have more people who can score than most teams.”

Worley finished with 16 points, scoring all of it in the first and fourth quarters, her teammates picking it up the two in between. 

Sophomore point guard Maya Johnson was right behind her with 15 points, hitting two 3-pointers and a couple twos, plus going 5-of-6 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to make sure Plymouth Whitemarsh didn’t get to a point where it really felt like the comeback was possible. 

“Maya was great. And Maya wants the spotlight,” Marsh said. “Maya’s that type of kid where she wants to be able to make the big shot, make the big free-throw. She’s fearless in that way. 

“Yeah, Maya played great today, unbelievably great.”

While Abington’s offense was generally strong, its defense was even better. The Ghosts held the Colonials to 11-of-40 (27.5%) from the floor, frustrating almost every set they tried to run, locking down on the glass and limiting them to one look on most of their possessions. 

“I think what kept us locked in is just knowing where everybody is,” Worley said. “Last game we had small mistakes like not boxing out, not knowing where our players are. [...] I think today we took pride in boxing out and rebounds, because they score a lot on second chances.”

PW scored the last six points of the second quarter to make it a 19-10 game at halftime; each scored 10 points in the third to keep the gap at nine entering the fourth, at which point the game slowed way down, the teams combining for 35 foul shots in the final eight minutes after shooting a grand total of two the three quarters before.

Abington benefitted from two technical fouls assessed to Plymouth Whitemarsh head coach Dan Dougherty, both in the fourth quarter, both at critical times. The first came in an eight-point game the tech coming as the teams went to a timeout, Worley stepping up and hitting two foul shots and then getting to the line on the ensuing possession to push the lead back to 12.

The second came as Dougherty attempted to call a timeout with less than three minutes remaining, standing up to do so, which got him whistled up by one ref as another granted the timeout. 

“I’m screaming timeout because (the official) puts the ball down [to count off five seconds], no one’s paying attention,” Dougherty said. “Then I jump up and scream ‘timeout’ and I thought the timeout had been given to me…and then (the other official) comes running up and calls a technical foul for me being off the bench.”

Instead of PW taking over down seven with 2:26 left, it was Abington ball and a nine-point lead following two more Worley foul shots. PW hit just enough shots from that point to not fall any further behind, but Abington was 15-of-19 from the foul stripe in the fourth to put it away.

That left Dougherty and PW having to say goodbye to the last two stars from the Colonials’ unbeaten state champs last year, Daley and Sharpe, the two combining for 22 points in their final game in a Colonials uniform; senior point guard Angelina Balcer, who had two points and seven rebounds, will be going to play at Chestnut HIll.

“I told the girls, this stings, this stings right now, these two losses, this stings,” Dougherty said. “And we use that word sting on purpose, like it’ll wear off and they’ll be able to look back and they really accomplished a lot of things this season I didn’t think going into the season were there — for us to win the league for the fourth straight year, win the SOL Tournament for the second straight year, the seniors got 100 wins in their career in four years. 

“So a lot of really special accomplishments that are hard to see right now because it hurts so bad. A frustrating end to what was otherwise a successful year.”

Abington will host No. 10 Conestoga on Wednesday in the first of two seeding games, with No. 9 Unionville and No. 20 Garnet Valley in the other; all four are qualified for the PIAA Class 6A tournament. 

“We had a big team meeting after that last loss to Pennsbury and I said look, you guys have two choices: you can quit, or we can go after this thing again in states, because it’s not over,” Marsh said. “And they all said they wanted to make a run at it.”

By Quarter
PWHS:  4   |   6   |  10  |  18  ||  38

ASHS:  13  |   6   |  10  |  17  ||  46

Shooting
PWHS: 11-40 FG (6-22 3PT), 10-18 FT

ASHS: 12-32 FG (7-15 3PT), 15-19 FT

Scoring
PWHS: Erin Daley 12, Abby Sharpe 10, McKenna Winland 8, Azzy Crumpton 6, Angelina Balcer 2

ASHS: Cire Worley 16, Maya Thompson 15, Jordyn Reynolds 8, Abril Bowser 5, Piper McGinley 2