City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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ABINGTON >> Jake Manigault had to change the flow of the game.

The Abington senior and his teammates had watched as Dobbins Tech whittled a once-20 point lead down to three late in the third quarter and with the game still on the line early in the fourth, the guard went into attack mode. A couple tough drives capped by acrobatic finishes set the Ghosts back on the right path in their season opener.

Thanks to a fast start and a strong finish, Abington downed Dobbins Tech 70-51 Saturday afternoon.

“We came together, told each other we had to dig in on defense, we gotta crash rebounds - they killed us on rebounds in the third quarter and that’s when they started mounting their comeback,” Manigault said. “Me and Paulie (Paul Glants) we came together as the seniors and told everybody we had to play together, crash the glass and make the extra pass, so that’s where we started rolling again.”

Abington started the game great, racing out to a 24-8 lead after the first quarter using some disruptive defense, a full-floor game and ball movement. Second year coach Dan Marsh expects that from this group but he also knows it's the middle two quarters that tend not to follow suit.

The Ghosts expanded their lead to 20 when Manigault and Xander Grasty hit back-to-back threes for a 30-10 lead with 6:44 left in the second quarter. Then, the offense started to get stuck and as Abington started to settle for more and more jumpers, the Mustangs started cutting into the lead behind an inspired effort by Jarrell Little.

“We have not had a problem with starts but the middle of the game has been an issue for us, just keeping the intensity up,” Marsh said. “(Little) came in and started playing really well, so we had to make some adjustments on him but he got them back in the game. We have to rebound and when we don’t rebound, it’s going to be a problem.”

Little, who scored 21 points, scored back-to-back buckets with five minutes left in the third that clipped the lead to 37-33. Dobbins Tech got as close as 44-41 on a Khaleef Agbemehia putback with 1:31 left in the frame before Abington closed the frame on a 4-0 spurt.

Things had gotten too close for comfort, so Manigault changed the tone to start the fourth. The senior, who is getting interest from the Division II and III level, opened the frame with a pair of acrobatic drives to the rim, then had an and-one drive to help extend what became a 15-2 Ghosts run.

“It’s hours of work and stuff I work on every day,” Manigault said. “I just have to trust my work ethic.”

Marsh pointed to Glants and Faizon “Skit” Garland as the team’s vocal leaders while Manigault is one who sets the pace with his play. Asked what he’s looking for from the senior, the Abington coach had an easy answer.

“That,” Marsh said. “He’s a leader by example. He does a phenomenal job of playing his butt off and everyone follows suit with him. I told them last year that I want this team to have your personality and hopefully that happens.”

Abington was a senior-heavy team last year with a large rotation of players. Manigault felt the win would be a good lift for the younger players on this year’s team but at the same time, the senior agreed there was still plenty the Ghosts could do better as they move on into the season.

“After we lost last year in the first round of playoffs, we took a week off then we got right back to it in February,” Manigault said. “We’ve been going non-stop since February, defense is our main priority so that’s what we’ve got to dive in on.”

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By Quarter
Abington: 24  | 10  |  16  |  20  ||  70
Dobbins:   8   |  17  |  17  |   9   ||  51

Scoring
A: Jake Manigault 17, Faizon Garland 14, Xander Grasty 13, Paul Glants 10, Leo D’Arco 5, Nick O’Rourke 3, Kyler Pickron 2

DT: Jarrell Little 21, Haneef Davis 19, Khaleef Agbemehia 7, Tylee Richardson 4

~~~

GIRLS: CB EAST 55, ABINGTON 24

Shots aren’t always going to fall, as the Patriots got a reminder of Saturday, but defense can make up for it.

CB East got plenty of good looks and made enough of them, but it was far from smooth going offensively for the reigning SOL Colonial division champions. The Patriots made up for it by not letting Abington have much success on offense either.

East controlled the final three quarters to pick up a 55-24 win in their first game of the season.

“It’s where we start and get our intensity from,” East junior Jess Lockwood said. “If we get a stop, we get most of our intensity from that and that’s where we look to keep going.”

Junior Natalie Berndt shook off a bit of a slow offensive start to finish with 17 points, the guard also doing a nice job defensively on Maya Johnson and holding the Abington standout senior to eight points. Lockwood connected for 14 points and added four assists.

East senior Sydney Ralph didn’t score, but she had five assists and helped out plenty on defense while sophomore Haley Moran added nine points.

The offensive looks were good, the Patriots generating a lot of open threes and getting to the rim, but the finishing was just off. With their next game not coming until Dec. 11, there’s plenty of time to get that fine-tuned.

“Everyone knows how to get open,” Lockwood said. “We hit them when they were curling, we found shooters, the curl-cut was open a lot in the second half so we kept hitting it. Shots will fall as we go along.”

The Patriots bring back three starters from last year, with Moran and Emma Penecale stepping in to the first five alongside Berndt, Ralph and Lockwood on Saturday. Savannah Hayes and Mary Long came off the bench, the duo combining for nine points and the collective continuity is something else the team will be leaning on this season.

“We have a lot of versatility on the team,” Lockwood said. “There’s always going to be someone for everything each game throws at us.”

~~~

By Quarter
CB EAST      8   |  13  |  20  |  14  ||  55
ABINGTON  10  |   4   |   6   |   4   ||  24

Scoring
CBE: Natalie Berndt 17, Jess Lockwood 14, Haley Moran 9, Emma Penecale 6, Delaney Long 5, Savannah Hayes 4

A: Maya Johnson 8, Aniyah Williams 7, Mikaiya Durham 6, Hailey Hernandez 3