Senior Matt Penecale surpassed the 1,000-point milestone in Abington’s win over Harry S Truman on Tuesday night.
By Mike Prince
For Suburban One Sports
There really isn’t a whole lot that Matt Penecale can’t do.
On the basketball court, the Abington senior is often the best shooter and scorer on the floor. When a shot is missed, seldom will he not be crashing the paint for a rebound. When the shot isn’t there for him, he’s always looking to a teammate for that extra pass. On defense, he’s as good as it gets, never lackadaisical while running back to the other side of the floor. And in the classroom, he carries a 4.2 GPA to go along with his 2020 SAT scores, both good enough to turn heads at schools as prestigious as MIT.
On Tuesday night, Penecale, 18, added yet another accomplishment to his high school career, reaching the 1,000-point milestone in the second quarter of a 55-30 Abington win over Harry S. Truman, a victory which kept the Ghosts undefeated in the National Conference.
With his parents in attendance, Penecale hit a layup less than 10 minutes into the game to reach the plateau, and the game was stopped for a minute so the star senior could be honored.
"I talked to Coach (Alan) Munford from Truman before the game and he was very nice about stopping the game for us," Abington coach Charles Grasty said. "Matt went to his parents and gave them a hug and he deserved this. He's one of the hardest workers ever to come through this program and he has Division 1 talent."
Grasty is in his fifth year as head coach of the Ghosts. In his first year, he saw Penecale play during his eighth grade season, and immediately knew that Penecale was primed for big things. The other coaches may have not seen it yet, but Grasty knew. Within one year, Penecale, although only a freshman, was already starting for Abington.
Over the course of the next three seasons, Penecale put up solid numbers, whether it was points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots or minutes on the court. During the last two, Penecale has led the Ghosts in both assists and steals to go along with his high point totals.
And he's not just controlling the ball and putting up great numbers on a team without much other talent.
Penecale, in his final season with the Ghosts, is helping his team to try and find the same success it has had in recent years. The last two seasons have seen the Ghosts advance to the district final four and last winter just seconds short of advancing to the PIAA Class AAAA championship game.
"No way would we have done what we did without Matt," Grasty said. "Everything he does helps. He's one of the smartest players on the court at all times. He's very unselfish and we feel like he could've gotten to 1,000 points a little bit earlier, but he always looks for the second guy and doesn't take as many shots as he could've. He's sacrificed himself and he just got better and better and faster and stronger and he just continues to get better."
Penecale, who has gotten looks from Wesleyan, Vassar and Swarthmore, among other highly regarded academic schools (such as MIT), said he also wouldn't mind being a walk-on at a Patriot League school if that's an option.
Most athletes wouldn't choose to walk on to a team when they could be playing somewhere else with a scholarship, but Penecale not only values his education (he plans on majoring in engineering), but he also is willing to put forth the time, hard work and effort needed to be successful in every facet of life.
"He will go somewhere and play, and he will be a great student and a success," Grasty said. "He started to really have higher aspirations as a junior to play Division One, but now he's just ready to go somewhere that really wants him."
This season, the left-handed basketball star is averaging just under 16 points per game and is continuing to rack up the assists and steals. His team is still the class of the conference, as it has been for three years, and he's just happy to have the milestone be a thing of the past.
"It was a great feeling," said Penecale, who now has 1,004 points on his career after playing limited minutes against Truman. "It was over my head the last couple of games, and I just wanted to get it out of the way. Having my family there was just a great experience. We've had some great team accomplishments and luckily, I've been a part of them the last four years.
"But it's definitely now a weight off. I was trying not to think about it, but it was definitely in the back of my head, so I had to just get it out of the way and now I can look forward to the next couple of games. We have two big games coming up, so to not have to worry about it is huge."
Penecale said it best. The milestone was just that – a milestone. Something to be proud of, something to remember and something to be honored for later on. But for now, the task at hand is for Abington to win another conference title, compete in districts and try to make another state playoff run.
The Ghosts have the team to do it. And not just because of Penecale, who says that none of his personal achievements would even be possible if not for Coach Grasty and the number of talented players who have come through the program since 2011.
"My teammates and coaches are great," Penecale said. "My teammates were looking to me the last 3-4 games trying to get me the ball, and they were doing everything they could to get me to 1,000 (points) as soon as possible. I couldn't thank them enough for helping me and now we have to go out there and keep winning."
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