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VILLANOVA – The introductions prior to Friday night’s eagerly awaited District One AAAA title contest pitting neighboring Abington against top-seeded Cheltenham had barely ended when Cheltenham’s large student section began chanting, “It’s all over. It’s all over.”
The suggestion that Abington would never be in the game was decidedly premature. The Ghosts weren’t just in the game, they won it.Ninety minutes later, an exhausted but smiling Emily Leer stood outside her team’s locker room, clutching the game ball. The Ghosts had silenced the Lady Panther fans by holding their composure when it mattered most, scoring their final 13 points of the game from the foul line and earning a 54-44 win.
The district crown was the school’s first in 35 years, and it was reason to celebrate.
“It’s just tremendous,” Leer said. “It’s funny to look back to when we started and your expectations for the season. All those bumps and the adversity we went through this season.
“It’s just crazy that we made it to this point and that we came together as a team, and we came together at the perfect point. It doesn’t matter what happens in those (losses) to Council Rock North and Lower Merion. These are the games that count, and it’s a great feeling to come out and show what kind of team we are.”
The kind of team the Ghosts are might not be your typical district champion. After all, how many teams win a title with their star 6-2 forward playing point guard – or was it point forward?
That’s exactly what the Ghosts did, and all the time Leer invested in developing her ball handling skills paid huge dividends as the Villanova-bound senior protected the basketball against Cheltenham’s non-stop pressure defense as if it were her life.
“It was really difficult,” Leer said. “If I could choose one team that I wouldn’t have to bring the ball up against, it would be Cheltenham.
“I slipped up a couple of times, but for the most part, I tried to keep my composure, but it was real exhausting. I really just wanted the ball in the post because I knew I could dominate down there, but I couldn’t get down there, and we adjusted. We weren’t playing our bread-and-butter type game with me in the post, but we still pulled it out and won.”
Leer led all scorers with 20 points to go along with 11 rebounds. She did most of her damage from the foul line where she was 14-for-18, and playing Leer at the top, according to coach Dan Marsh, was the Ghosts’ only option.
“They disrupt you so much,” he said of the Lady Panthers. “We wanted to get the ball inside, but they put so much pressure up top.
“They didn’t let us get the ball where we wanted to get it, and that’s why I’m so proud of the girls because we still won. We really didn’t play the inside type game that we like to play. In the end it came down to our defense. We played great defense.”Aiyannah Peal added 14 points for the Ghosts, which included a six-for-six effort at the foul line in the fourth quarter. Jamie Shectman once again delivered three timely three-point baskets.
“It was another great team effort,” Marsh said.
Shayla Felder led the Lady Panthers with 19 points – 12 of those points came from the foul line where she was 12-of-15, and every single one of those points was hard-earned as the Panthers’ senior star took a beating as she drove into the paint where she was met by Leer and company.
“We knew we had to stop her coming in,” Marsh said. “We knew she was the key to their team. We ran the zone because we knew we didn’t have anybody to stay in front of her.
“We wanted to have help when she beat somebody, and we had Emily in the middle, which made it tough for her. We fouled her a little too much, which made things interesting, but you have a great player like that – sometimes that’s going to happen.”
Sophomore Ciara Andrews added 12 points and eight rebounds while Kira Ogden added nine points and eight rebounds for the Lady Panthers (25-2).
“They were dominating under the boards,” Cheltenham coach Bob Schaefer said. “We got them a little out of sync for a while, and all we had to do was score a basket or two, and I think we could have taken control of the momentum and made them work a little harder, and maybe we could have hung on.
“We didn’t score when we had to. We came up a little small, and we gave up too many baskets inside on follow-ups. We weren’t boxing out and didn’t get the rebound. They’re a good-sized team, but generally, we’re quick to get to the ball, but we weren’t tonight. I give them a lot of credit. They were in a tough situation when we did get it down to 40-40. They could have folded, but they did a nice job.
“Their size was just too much for us, and Emily Leer did everything for them. She did a great job.”The Lady Panthers’ problems under the basket were underscored in a first quarter that saw the Ghosts hold an 11-2 rebounding advantage as they opened up a 17-9 lead.
“Their size really killed us,” Schaefer said. “If you run into a big team that will dominate the boards, we’re in trouble because if we can’t take the ball from them defensively, we don’t have the scoring power.
“We have to take it and go and do a lot of transition scoring, which we didn’t do too much of. When your only two scorers are out 22 feet and everyone else is watching them, that makes it hard.”
Tiffany Johnson put the Lady Panthers on the scoreboard first when she scored off the dribble on Cheltenham’s opening possession, but Peal answered with a bucket at the other end on - in an omen of things to come -her team’s third shot of the possession.
After another Panther miss, Shectman hit nothing but net on a three, and then Leer sank one-of-two from the foul line. Ogden interrupted the Ghosts’ run by burying one-of-two from the stripe, but Shectman calmly buried another three to put the Ghosts on top 9-3.
“I was just ready,” Shectman said. “We never had any publicity. No one even knew about us except for our true fans, and all of a sudden, everyone is coming out, everyone is so excited. It’s great.
“We were all so pumped. I was nervous, but once I hit the first shot, I started going. Once you hit that first shot, you’re in a rhythm.”
“Some of us weren’t knocking down shots,” Leer added, “and for her to step up and knock down those open shots, it was really huge.
“It kind of got the momentum going for us.”Ogden scored four straight points for the Panthers, but the Ghosts had an answer, and they led 15-7 after a Jessica Schmidt bucket – again on the Ghosts’ second shot of the possession. The quarter ended with the Ghosts on top by seven, and they opened up a 19-9 lead after Leer sank two from the foul line to open the second quarter.
“It was very tough,” Felder said. “We had to rely on our shooters, but they basically had the perimeter covered, and it was hard to get the ball inside and kick it out.
“Their posts were much bigger than us, and they were denying our posts, and it was hard to take the ball to the basket. They had us shut down on defense.”
It was still a 10-point game (21-11) after Chynna West sank both ends of a one-and-one, but the Panthers crawled back into the game. The Ghosts’ lead was trimmed to 21-18 after Felder buried a three-pointer.
Back-to-back baskets by Leer send the Ghosts into halftime with a 26-19 lead.
After a Peal steal, Leer scored to put the Ghosts on top by nine, but then the Panthers went to work. Andrews scored off the dribble and then turned a steal into a layup. Ogden buried a pair from the foul line, and after a Ghosts’ turnover, Felder scored off the dribble.
An Abington miss set the stage for a pair of Felder foul shots, knotting the score 28-28. Felder capped the 11-0 Panther run when she banked home a drive at the 2:55 mark of the quarter, giving the Panthers their first lead since the opening seconds of the game (30-28).
A Leer bucket broke the five-minute Ghost scoring drought, and by the end of the quarter, the Ghosts – after a Peal drive – led 34-30. It was a one-point game after an Andrews pull-up early in the fourth quarter, but West turned a Peal pass into an easy bucket.
After the Panthers misfired on the front end of a one-and-one, Shectman hit nothing but net on a three, and this one was a dagger in the heart for the Lady Panthers, who found themselves on the short end of a 39-33 score.For Shectman, it was her first basket since the opening quarter.
“I was just like, ‘I am going to get killed if I don’t make this shot, alright,’ and I just shot it,” Shectman said. “It was nice.”
The Panthers staged one last comeback attempt, and a bucket by Andrews with two minutes remaining trimmed the Ghosts’ lead to 42-40, but junior Carli Fitzgerald – pressed into emergency duty because of foul woes – calmly sank both ends of a one-and-one to stretch the Ghosts’ lead to four.
“Through the whole game I was nervous but trying to be ready,” said Fitzgerald. “I just had to calm myself down, use my legs and get them in.
“I knew I could make them.”
Felder answered with a pair from the line for the Panthers, but Peal returned the favor, and after a Cheltenham miss, Leer, who was fouled after pulling down the rebound, connected on a pair. The Panthers would get no closer than four the rest of the way.
So when did the reality that the Ghosts were about to become district champs finally sink in?
“The last 20 seconds – we were up by six and Aiyannah hit the two shots to put us up by eight,” Leer said. “It was so amazing.
“I just find it really amazing to be part of this whole history thing. We’re doing something really special right now, and I get to be part of it. It was overwhelming emotion. It was just phenomenal to win the district title and to beat our rival Cheltenham.”“I’m still soaking it in right now,” Marsh said. “It’s just incredible. It’s so big to beat a guy like Schaefer, to beat Cheltenham and to be district champs. Who would have thought?
“This team has been resilient all year long. They bounced back, and they really battled. I’m so proud of them.”
While the Ghosts (23-4) were celebrating, the Lady Panthers (25-2) were left to deal with a loss in the district title game for the second time in as many years.
“It’s very disappointing knowing how we came back and were given a second chance, but we’re in the same position as last year,” Felder said. “We’re going to keep our heads up.
“It’s not how you fall. It’s how you pick yourself up. We’ll continue to work hard at practice, and we’re going to find our way into states to face whoever we have to face. I hope it’s Abington.”
Both teams return to action next Friday when the PIAA AAAA state tournament begins.
ABINGTON 54, CHELTENHAM 44
Abington 17 9 8 20-54
Cheltenham 9 10 11 14-44
Abington (54) – Jamie Shectman 3 0-0 9; Chynna West 2 2-3 6; Jessica Schmidt 1 1-4 3; Aiyannah Peal 4 6-6 14; Emily Leer 3 14-18 20; Sheila Longo 0 0-0 0; Carli Fitzgerald 0 2-4 2; Sarah Listenbee 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 25-35 54.
Cheltenham (44) – Monet Constant 0 0-0 0; Tiffany Johnson 1 0-0 2; Kira Ogden 2 5-7 9; Shayla Felder 3 12-15 19; Austen Hamler 0 0-0 0; Ciara Andrews 5 1-3 12; Liz Taliaferro 0 2-4 2; Lorraine Oliver 0 0-0 0; Artavia Sheffield 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 11 20-29 44.
3-point goals: Abington – Shectman 3. Cheltenham – Felder 1, Andrews 1. 
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