Abington won its third place game in District One AAAA play, and Norristown defeated Central Bucks South in the ninth place game.
#5 ABINGTON 53, #3 GREAT VALLEY 47
The Ghosts rebounded from their loss to top-seeded Chester in Tuesday’s district semifinals to defeat the third-seeded Patriots in Friday night’s District One AAAA contest.
“This was extremely important,” coach Charles Grasty said. “We wanted to play well. We didn’t play particularly well the whole game, but we played well in spurts.
“We told our guys that we need to focus for the entire game. This was a game to work on some things, but we wanted to get back on track. We had won 10 straight before we lost to Chester, and they had a sour taste in their mouth after that, so we wanted to come out here and play well, play hard and then prepare for states next Saturday.”
The Ghosts led 11-9 at the end of on quarter and took a 26-17 lead into halftime.
“We went on a 15-0 run in the second quarter, got some younger guys in,” Grasty said. “We just wanted to see the effort they would give. We weren’t really too concerned with execution.
“We wanted to get some guys in the game. We’ll get back to practice this week and work on the execution, but we wanted to see the effort, wanted to see the fight. We wanted to see how much that Chester game took out of them, but we responded well. I was pleased with the effort.”
Senior Michael Griffin led the Ghosts with 16 points.
“He shot it well,” Grasty said. “They played a zone against us. They played like a 1-3-1. We feel he’s one of the better shooters in the district. We got him some good looks, and he was able to knock them down.
“He shot 4-for-8 from the three-point line. He settled for 10 shots, but he could have gotten more, but he wanted to be patient.”
Anthony Durham added 10 points and Jiere Morrisey, nine points, while Anthony Lee had seven points.
Abington (22-5) will face District 12’s third place team in next Saturday’s opening round game of the PIAA Class AAAA state tournament.
#4 NORRISTOWN 47, #14 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 42
The Eagles won Friday’s all-SOL battle for ninth place. The Eagles led 10-5 at the end of one quarter, but the Titans responded with a 16-11 second quarter to knot the score 21-21 at halftime. The Eagles outscored the Titans 18-13 in the third quarter on their way to the win.
“It was real sluggish for both teams,” Norristown coach Mike Evans said. “We made plays at the end to steal the win. Our defense stepped it up.
“Our offense wasn’t clicking that well, and I always tell the guys, ‘When our offense isn’t working, we have to pick it up on defense.’ They buckled down down the stretch, and we made some key steals and got some easy transition buckets.
“It was an ugly win, but a win’s a win. We were just glad to get out of there with a ‘W.’ We didn’t want to go into states with a loss. Wherever the chips lie you have to go and make the best of it.”
Josh Johnson led the Eagles with 11 points while Marquis Bryant had 10 points and eight rebounds, and Jahbri Hargrove had 10 points and nine rebounds. Curt Lever handed out four assists.
For the Titans, Brennan Rudnick, Adam Tamny and Chase Vonder Schmalz each added eight points while Ricky Dennis had seven points.
The Eagles (23-4) will face the District 12 champion Roman Catholic in next Saturday’s opening round of the PIAA state tournament while the Titans (18-10) will take on the winner of Saturday’s District 3 AAAA title game between Harrisburg and William Penn.
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