City of Basketball Love

Dan Arkans (@danarkans)
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LOWER MERION — Abington senior center Jon Roberts certainly has the bloodlines to be a dominant figure this season for the Ghosts.

His mom was four-year letterwinner for the Syracuse Orange from 1987-1990. His father by the same name is an East Stroudsburg University hall of famer, where he’s the men’s basketball team’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder at East Stroudsburg University with 2,218 points and 1,247 rebounds.

The elder Roberts also led the Warriors to the 1990 PSAC title, scoring a record 689 points that season. He was named Associated Press Little All-America second team and selected as the Male Senior Athlete of the Year at East Stroudsburg. 

So Roberts expects a lot of himself.

“Pretty big,” said the senior, summing up his parents’ influence on his basketball.

One night after he scored just two points against Wissahickon, the soft-spoken center let his game do the talking in a 54-45 win over Pennsbury at the City of Basketball Love Showcase on Saturday at Harriton High School. Roberts finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in a breakout performance.

He went scoreless in the first quarter, but then the Ghosts (6-2) had a difficult time keeping him off the floor. Roberts didn’t score his first bucket until 4:25 was left in the second quarter. 

He only had three points at the half.

“We go with who’s playing well, that’s how we do it,” Abington head coach Dan Marsh said. “Jon, we felt like he played well in the first half, so we went with Jon instead of Kamari (Brashear). That’s how we do it with everything. We are deep. We have a senior-laden team. Everyone is checking their egos and has to be ready to play when it’s their turn. Fortunately, we have been able to do it.” 

Abington used two technical fouls on the Pennsbury coaching staff to take a 28-20 lead into the third quarter. Then, Roberts got going. He had an impressive block and then drilled a 3-pointer to give Abington a 31-22 advantage.

“When I shot the 3, I just shot it,” the 6-foot-5 senior said. “I thought it was going to go in. I just shot the ball, I didn’t think too much about it.”

“That was a no-no-yes 3,” Marsh said. “We want Jon to be more physical and be a rim protector, rebound, outlet and run the floor. He’s getting there. Obviously, he had a great game tonight. When he establishes himself, we are a much harder team to beat because we can funnel our defense into him.”

Roberts was just getting going. He went coast-to-coast on a steal and then picked up a loose ball at midcourt and finished it off with a thundering dunk. Abington led 35-22 with 4:22 to play.

Roberts and the Abington bench needed to come through Saturday because leading scorer and senior Jeremiah Lee battled through foul trouble to finish with 13 points. It just wasn’t Roberts filling in the void, but nine players scored in all for Abington.

“I wasn’t thinking about it,” Roberts said of his playing time. “I was just locked in.”

“We have a three-headed monster,” said Abington assistant coach Gary Massey, who played with the elder Roberts on the playgrounds of Philadelphia. “We go game-by-game. Whoever is producing what we need at that game that’s what we roll with. If all three bigs are playing well we get them all in the rotation. Tonight was Jon’s night. He did the things we needed him to do well as our big man. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

Pennsbury, though, did not go quietly into the night. The Falcons (4-3) ended the third quarter with a 9-0 run, sparked by five points from Connor Taddei, and trailed just 37-33.

Lee responded with a drive to open the final frame, and after a big 3-pointer from Paul Glants, the Ghosts were out of trouble.

“We have some other players who can step up,” Marsh said. “Aaron (Jones) and Khalid (Jenkins) and all of them can really play. I thought we would struggle more with JJ (Lee) struggling, but these kids are starting to pick it up. We go 10 deep.”

Glants did finish with eight points, but Rawls stepped in at point guard and delivered a solid all-around game with three points, two rebounds, two steals and two assists. Jenkins also finished with seven points, six in the first half.

“It’s big,” Marsh said of the SOL crossover victory.” We are still trying to find our way and the way we want to play. Bouncing back last night and today was big. We want to make sure they are playing the right way, and they did. Pennsbury is a formidable opponent, who is a perennial playoff team. We knew this could help us in the future with districts. We wanted to come in and play well. It was sloppy at times, but it’s still December. I am happy about the win for sure.” 

Pennsbury’s deliberate pace and trapping defense did slow down the Ghosts’ attack. Mike Roccograndi led the Falcons with 15 points, while Daniel Cohen added eight as Pennsbury opened the game with a 10-4 run and led 13-12 after the first quarter. The Falcons hung tough, tying the game up at 20 with 3:03 to play, but Abington closed the half with a 27-20 lead.

Marsh was most impressed with Roberts on the defensive end of the court. With all the driving and kicking Pennsbury was doing, the Abington center just stuck with Simon Dlugi, who was blanked in the second half.

“We definitely wanted to play faster,” Marsh said. “We would have liked to have been up more, but once they went to that trapping defense we had to spread the floor and take our time.”

“If I didn’t play so well, I don’t think I wouldn’t have played so long,” Roberts said.

By Quarter

Abington: 12 | 15 | 10 | 17 || 54

Pennsbury 13 | 7 | 13 | 12 || 45

Scoring

Abington: Lee 13; Brashear 2; Giants 8; Jones 4; Flournoy 3; Roberts 12; Jenkins 7; Rawls 3; Manigault 2.

Pennsbury: Cohen 8; Roccograndi 15; Dlugi 4; Taddei 8; Mangan 4; Gozum 6.