Abington defeated defending District 1 6A champion Souderton to earn a spot in Wednesday’s District 1 6A semifinals. Photos provided by Geanine Jamison. Check back for a gallery of photos.
#1-3 ABINGTON 54, #1-6 SOUDERTON 38
Two years ago, Abington – the 2017 District 1 6A champion – was eliminated from the state playoffs in a second round loss to Northampton. Kassondra Brown – then just a sophomore – made her coach a promise.
“She started to take over in that game, but it was too late,” coach Dan Marsh said. “She said to us as coaches, ‘I promise I’ll never wait too long to do it again.’”
After scoring just four points in the first half of Friday’s District 1 6A quarterfinal and with her team trailing by two at the intermission, Brown decided it was time to make good on the promise she had made.
“She just said, ‘Give me the ball, coach,’” Marsh said. “Souderton is such a good defensive team, and they were taking away a lot of what we did.
“She said, ‘Whatever we run, make sure I get the ball.’ We basically went to a 4-out and started dumping it in to her, and she just took over. This is where her maturity really steps in.
“Tonight she realized her team needed her, and she stepped up and just took over. She’s the most dominant high school player I’ve ever coached in so many ways. Tonight it was with buckets and rebounds.”
Brown flat out took over the game in the third quarter, scoring 11 points and pulling down five rebounds. She scored 20 of her game-high 24 points after the intermission and owned the paint.
“I went in at halftime, and I talked to myself – I was shooting too many jump shots, and they weren’t falling,” Brown said. “I was too in my head. I was nervous, I’m not going to lie.
“I came out the second half, and I did what I do best. I just want to be on the box – that’s what makes me happy, it’s what I do best. I was very determined. Every second I’m on the court – it goes through my head, ‘We won SOLs, we can do anything we want.’ It gives me confidence every time I’m down, and it showed tonight.”
The Indians had no answer for Brown, who scored on a variety of moves down low. Any chances they may have had to contain the Rhode Island-bound center took a major hit when senior Megan Walbrandt – the Indians’ undisputed defensive catalyst and a key on the offensive end as well – became ill as her team took the court for the third quarter and did not play in the second half.
“Obviously, not having Megan Walbrandt for the second half is a pretty significant loss for us,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “Some people had to play out of position. We had four guards that didn’t come off the court in the second half, and I give them a ton of credit for how hard they kept working.
“Offensively, we need Megan to run a lot of our sets, and defensively, she would have drawn the matchup of Kassondra Brown. That kid had an unbelievable game – she was determined to win that game. She has the kind of teammates who are like, ‘Okay, we’re going to get you the ball,’ and that’s what they did for 16 minutes, that’s what they should have done. Our kids worked as hard as they could to try and prevent it. Maybe we should have tried to sit back in a zone a little bit once it was clear what was going to continue to happen, but not having Megan – I’m certainly not going to suggest we would have won, but I think it would have made what they did in the second half a little more challenging. Maybe not. It’s just tough as a coach when you want to go with a game plan, and you’re shorthanded and you can’t.”
“That was a big difference for them,” Marsh said of Walbrandt’s absence from the lineup. “It’s tough. No one ever wants to see that, and it’s a shame she got sick like that. It’s just one of those things.”
For a while, it looked like it was going to be another classic battle between the SOL powers. The two teams battled to a 12-12 tie after one quarter. Tamia Wessels scored eight points to ignite the Ghosts while Mikaela Reese’s five points led the Indians.
The points stopped coming for both teams in the second quarter after Khalis Whiting found Cam Lexow for an easy bucket less than a minute into the third quarter.
Neither team scored again until Megan Bealer connected with 55 seconds remaining. Whiting scored on a drive at the other end, and Walbrandt did the same for the Indians. A Walbrandt steal on the ensuing inbounds set the stage for a Megan O’Donnell basket after the diminutive point guard came up with her eighth rebound of the half, sending the Indians into halftime with an 18-16 lead.
“At halftime, everyone was kind of down on themselves,” Brown said. “No one was hitting shots, it was a close game.
“I think we realized – no one really said it, but we can beat anybody we want to beat. We’re a really good team, and we came out of halftime and we showed it.”
After Curran O’Donnell scored on a drive to give the Indians a 20-16 lead, Brown went to work, converting a three-point play. The Indians had their last lead (22-20) when Megan O’Donnell turned an Olivia Schneider pass into an easy bucket. Brown scored at the other end to knot the score. A pair of foul shots by Amanda Jackson – who took them for Wessels after the senior guard went down hard on the foul – gave the Ghosts a lead they would not lose. Four straight points by Brown put the Ghosts on top 28-22, and when Lexow turned a steal into a layup out of Souderton timeout, the Ghosts led 30-22. A Curran O’Donnell three at the buzzer pulled the Indians within five.
It was still a four-point game after Curran O’Donnell sank another three at the 5:39 mark of the final quarter. A basket by Whiting put the Ghosts on top by six, and the Indians found themselves scrambling. They had no answer, and the Ghosts – benefitting from 19 trips to the foul line in the quarter – stretched their lead.
Brown led all scorers with 24 points to go along with 19 rebounds in a stellar outing. Wessels finished with 11 points while Lexow and Whiting both had eight.
“The other big key for us is Kassondra and Khalis have become so much more disciplined defensively,” Marsh said. “So we’re able to keep them on the floor longer. The maturation of this team has been great.
“Our Souderton loss earlier this year (67-57) was one we were in foul trouble. We can’t do that anymore, and we realize that.”
Megan O’Donnel’s 13 points and 10 rebounds led the Indians. Curran O’Donnell added 10 points in a contest that saw the Indians connect on just 13-of-50 shots. They were 2-of-11 from beyond the arc in the second half.
“The kids worked so hard, and it kills me,” Carroll said. “I know they wanted to get back to Temple. It’s disappointing that we’re not, but they worked so, so hard, especially in the second half.
“We’re in a position we’ve never been in – we’re in a playoff game that you have to make feel like it’s a big deal. We’ll have to bounce back and figure out how to do that moving forward.”
Abington (23-3, 13-1 SOL) will take on the winner of Saturday’s #7 Council Rock North at #2 Neshaminy game on Wednesday in a semifinal contest at Bensalem. Souderton will face the loser of that game in a playback for seeding purposes.
Souderton 12-6-9-11 38
Abington 12-4-16-22 54
Souderton (38) – Megan Bealer 2 1-2 5; Megan Walbrandt 2 1-1 5; Curran O’Donnell 4 0-0 10; Megan O’Donnell 3 7-9 13; Mikaela Reese 2 0-0 5; TOTALS 13 9-12 38.
Abington (54) – Tamia Wessels 3 4-9 12; Cam Lexow 3 2-2 8; Kassondra Brown 9 6-7 24; Miranda Liebtag 0 0-0 0; Khalis Whiting 2 4-6 8; Amanda Jackson 0 2-2 2; Becca Poohle 0 0-0 0; Kaleigh Serianni 0 0-0 0; TOTALS 17 18-26 54.
3-point goals: Souderton – Curran O’Donnell 2, Mikaela Reese; Abington – Tamia Wessels 2.
About the Author
