Chris Ruhl is not a big fan of sitting on the bench. But the Abington senior had to admit … it was quite a thrill to see his teammates in action.
Ruhl, who found himself in foul trouble early and spent several long stretches riding the pine, watched as his Galloping Ghost teammates used a nine-point run in the second quarter and four-of-five shooting from the three-point arc in the third to pull away from Harry S. Truman and earn a decisive 69-53 Senior Night victory Friday night.
Eleven players – including all four seniors – scored for the Ghosts and four finished in double-digits. Freshman Matt Penecale drained three treys among his team-high 13 points.
“When I got those fouls, I was frustrated because I knew I was in foul trouble and I was coming out,” said Ruhl, the lone senior starter. “But I found out tonight … it’s really fun to watch these guys play. They have fun out there and it’s really fun to watch. I can’t imagine having to guard a team like this. You can’t just put one man on a shooter because there’s a shooter everywhere around the arc. From freshmen to seniors, everybody was hitting tonight, that’s what made it fun.”
For their part, the Ghosts on the floor quickly stepped up to clean up the glass in Ruhl’s absence, and without his presence in the paint, the hosts rained buckets from the perimeter. Abington shot 23-of-46 from the field, including 8-of-14 from three-point land.
“We’re getting used to it … Chris always gets in foul trouble,” Anthony Durham said with a laugh. “But we did a good job rebounding. And we shot lights-out today. We did a good job from the three-point line, the foul line, inside. We’re the type of team, when we move the ball around we play better. When everybody gets a touch and everybody shoots, we play better.”
“We shot well from the three, that’s the difference in the game,” said Abington coach Charles Grasty. “We like to play inside-out. They collapsed on us a lot tonight and we were able to kick it out and shoot open jump shots.”
With junior guard Durham (12 points, 9 assists) dishing the ball to open teammates almost at will, the Ghosts quickly expanded on their four-point lead after one quarter. Jiere Morrisey scored nine points in the second quarter, including two layups and a three-pointer as part of the nine-point Abington run that gave the home team a 30-14 lead. Morrisey finished tied with Penecale for the team lead with 13 points.
“We’re all athletic, so we all can rebound and we’ve got good shooters,” said Jordan Simmons, who finished with 11 points. “Every time we drive to the basket, we’re pretty confident that we’re going to have an open guy outside if we need to kick it out to them.”
Three Ghosts – Durham, Penecale (2) and Michael Griffith – sank treys in a third quarter that saw Abington shoot 8-of-10 from the floor. And while the Tigers – led by Merdic Green’s eight points (16 for the game) and Tyrice Harris’ six (14 overall)– scored 19 in the third, the Ghosts answered with 23 points to extend their lead to 58-39 after three periods.
“We were up 15 at their place and they came back and beat us (on Jan. 17),” Durham said. “So at halftime we talked about it. We knew they were going to try to make a run. We wanted to come out and play good defense and keep scoring.”
The Ghosts worked the lead to as large as 20 points in the fourth quarter, in which they shot 7-for-10 from the charity stripe. The fourth quarter was also significant for Zaahir Baldwin’s two successful foul shots with 64 seconds left on the clock. With those points, he joined his classmates Thomas Kennedy (2 points), Marvin Crawley (2) and Ruhl (4) in the scorebook.
It was a fitting sendoff for this small but extremely important senior class.
“Words can’t describe what those guys mean to us,” Simmons said. “We love having them. They motivate us, work us every day in practice.”
“These seniors are well-loved, not just on the team and in the school, but in the whole community,” Grasty said. “It was great to play well on Senior Night and have them go out with a win. These guys are great. I really mean that. We tell them all the tine how much we love these guys. They’re a special group.”
Ruhl felt confident speaking for his fellow seniors to express his appreciation.
“It was an awesome night,” said Ruhl, who will attend Lehigh University, where he will play football and major in mechanical engineering. “The parents did a really nice job, the coaches, and the players, they really made us feel special tonight. And to top it all off, having every senior score and play some really good basketball, it was really awesome.”
With the season-ending victory, the Ghosts finish at 16-6 – the team’s first winning season since 2005-06 – and are 9-5 in National Conference play. And Abington is looking forward to making some noise in the upcoming District One Tournament.
“We’re real close to where we need to be,” Simmons said. “We have a game plan, we execute it pretty well. I’m excited for the playoffs.”
“We’ve got the momentum we want,” Durham added. “We’re going to take it game by game and see if we can make a push.”
And while looking ahead to the second season, Ruhl took a moment to reflect on the journey he and his classmates have taken to make it to this point.
“Where we ended last year to where we are now, it’s more than a step up … it’s a tremendous leap to where we are now,” he said. “It’s amazing to be part of that. Especially after tonight, with the playoffs coming up and for all the younger guys we’ll have coming back next year, everyone’s very confident about what’s to come at Abington.”
Harry S. Truman 12 8 19 14 – 53
Abington 16 19 23 11 – 69
Harry S. Truman (53): Merdic Green 6 4-4 16; Daniel Harris 1 2-4 4; Tyrice Harris 7 0-0 14; Robert Becton 1 1-1 3; Mike Mintah 1 0-0 2; Daiquan Ashley 2 0-2 4; Kenny Osborne 0 0-2 0; Larry Winton 3 0-1 6; Sharif Clinton 1 0-1 2; #21 1 0-0 2; Tyrone Roberts 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 7-15 53.
Abington (69): Marvin Crawley 1 0-0 2; Chris Ruhl 2 0-0 4; Jordan Simmons 3 5-5 11; Matt Penecale 4 2-2 13; Jiere Morrisey 4 3-4 13; Michael Griffin 2 0-0 6; Thomas Kennedy 1 0-1 2; Khalid Gibson 1 0-0 2; Anthony Durham 4 3-5 12; Anthony Lee 1 0-0 2; Zaahir Baldwin 0 2-2 2; Mark Bond 0 0-0 0; Dillon Tranquillo 0 0-0 0; Jordan Neely 0 0-0 0; Kendall Stewart 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 15-19 69.
Three-point goals: Penecale 3, Morrisey 2, Griffin 2, Durham.
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