City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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ABINGTON — Junior Paul Glants shared the key to victory with the Abington boys basketball team Friday in practice: Composure.

Glants knew heading into a rivalry game with Cheltenham on Saturday afternoon that the Ghosts would need it.

In a game that featured some early lead changes and several big runs by both teams, Glants’ prediction came to fruition. Abington held off a late Cheltenham charge to pick up a 72-61 win in a Suburban One League crossover matchup that pitted two neighboring District 1-6A powers against each other.

“As long as we stay calm and know what we’re doing and don’t let them dictate what we’re gonna do on offense or defense, we’re going to be fine,” Glants said.

Abington senior Jeremiah Lee finished with a team-high 18 points, including 15 in the second half, and added nine rebounds and six steals. Senior forward Kamari Brashear added 16 points and eight rebounds; and Glants added 12 points and four assists that felt like they all came at big times. 

After Cheltenham junior Josiah Hutson, who led all scorers with 24 points, pulled the Panthers within three, Glants and senior Lee combined for nine points during an 11-0 fourth quarter run that finished off the win. 

“We just had to calm down, slow down because they were making us try to play faster than what we usually play,” Lee said. “We had to keep our composure.”

Glants and Lee are both third-year varsity players at Abington. They’ve also been playing hoops together since they were 7 and 8 years old, respectively, when they started going to the same trainer, Brian Nealy, who was on the visitors’ bench Saturday as an assistant at Cheltenham.

The pair have been invaluable for first-year coach Dan Marsh this season, which is his first coaching the Ghosts’ boys program after 18 years coaching the girls at Abington.

“Experience is the biggest thing,” Marsh said. “They’ve been in those situations before and a lot of these kids haven’t even though we have a senior-laden team. They bring that leadership and composure that we needed.”

Marsh has coached in District 1 championships and state playoff games but felt some pressure headed into the rivalry game with the Panthers. Even at a 12:30 p.m. tip-off, there was a sizable crowd Saturday, including Marsh’s former players from Abington’s girls team behind the Ghosts’ bench. (He got to see them in-person for the first time Friday night.)

The Ghosts led 13-9 after one quarter and even after two ties and five lead changes in the second quarter, they held a 30-27 halftime lead. Eight points from Brashear in the third quarter powered the Ghosts to a 51-44  advantage despite 11 from Hutson. Lee ripped off six straight points during a stretch in the fourth to extend the lead to 59-48 with five and a half minutes to play. 

Hutson powered an 8-0 run that closed the gap to three with four left in the game. That’s when Abington’s “composure” showed up. Glants quickly answered with a jumper, Aaron Jones added a bucket and Lee chipped in another off a feed from Glants to push the lead back to double digits with two and a half to play.

“That’s my favorite thing to do is pass,” Glants said. “Trying to make my teammates better, that’s my favorite thing.”

Lee and Glants both knocked down a pair of free throws to cap an 11-0 run that made it 70-56 Abington with about a minute to play. Seniors Nile Tinsley (14 points) and Kevin Addison (13 points) both had big days for Cheltenham, which struggled with Abington’s size on the glass.

The victory was a big one as Cheltenham entered at No. 7 and Abington entered at No. 8 in the District 1-6A power rankings. The Ghosts made a run to the district quarters and state playoffs ast the No. 23 seed in 2022 and fell in the second round as a No. 20 seed in 2023.

Lee and Glants remember watching being in the packed gyms during the Ghosts’ run of three straight District 1 championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019 when they were in elementary and middle school. 

They’d like to position themselves for a run of their own in their final season together as teammates.

“That’s all we want,” Lee said. “We’ve been saying it since we got to varsity."

By Quarter
C:  9  |  18  |  17  |  17  ||  61
A:  13  |  17  |  21  |  21  ||  72

Scoring
C: Josiah Hutson 24, Nile Tinsley 14, Kevin Addison 13, Mark Hill 3, Peyton McClendon 2, Osei Johnson 2, Salim Kelly 2, Kamal Mason 1.

A: Jeremiah Lee 18, Kamari Brashear 16, Paul Glants 12, Aaron Jones 9, Khalid Jenkins 8, Jaden Flournoy 5, Damon Rawls 3, Jon Roberts 1.