UPPER MORELAND – Abington’s Jeremiah Lee has worked on improving his free throwing shooting. And in the final minute of Thursday night’s SOL crossover against Upper Moreland, the senior came up clutch at the foul line to help the Ghosts hold on for a comeback win.
“We have been really putting a lot of pressure on JJ at practice with free throws,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “And yesterday I said we’re not going to stop running until JJ makes two – and it took him a while. And he finally made two and maybe that helped tonight.”
With 20.3 seconds remaining and the Ghosts holding just a 53-52 lead, the host Golden Bears came up empty on a pair of free throws. Lee grabbed the rebound, was fouled and proceeded to knock down both from the stripe, putting Abington up three with 18.1 ticks left.
“I just kept my composure,” Lee said. “And knew I was going to knock them down.”
Upper Moreland got a chance to tie but a 3-pointer from the right corner was long and Aaron Jones’ free throw with 5.6 seconds finished off a 56-52 Abington victory that saw the Ghosts erase a 10-point third quarter deficit to extend their winning streak to four.
“I just told ‘em that we got to start playing better defense,” Marsh said. “I felt like we were getting outworked, especially on the boards. And they played really well and you could tell that they really wanted to win, so I’m like you guys got to dig in, get one possession at the time, get one stop at a time, one score at a time and get ourselves back into this game.”
Lee finished 4-of-5 from the foul line as he matched Jones for the team high with 13 points. Paul Glants added 12 points for the Ghosts (8-2, 4-2 SOL Liberty).
“We need games like this so we learn how to finish because we’ve been in a couple situations where we haven’t,” Marsh said. “Now we had to come back from being behind which I’m really proud of ‘em but yeah it was basically just it’s pride time, we got to dig in and get some stops.”
Colson Campbell scored 13 of his game-best 20 points in the second half for Upper Moreland (6-4, 4-2 SOL Freedom) while Anthony Carson chipped in 12 points.
“I feel like every game’s going to be this way, so it’s just a matter of learning from this experience and growing and staying together,” Upper Moreland coach Dan Heiland said. “And that’s all you can do at this point, you can’t change the outcome so you got to move on, you got to learn from it and we just got to get better and continue to stay together as a group.”
UM capped the second quarter with a 16-1 run to take a 27-20 lead into halftime. The Golden Bears pushed their advantage to 39-29 after a Campbell three but the Ghosts scored 12 of the third quarter’s last 14 points – a Jon Roberts basket sending the game to the fourth even at 41.
Jaden Flournoy’s breakaway dunk had Abington up 43-41 before Campbell scored on an inbounds then made two free throws for a 45-43 UM lead. But Abington collected the next six points, Flournoy driving for a basket with Jones banking in a runner then draining a 3-pointer to have the Ghosts leading 50-45.
“We were matching the speed and the pace that they were trying to play at, I thought at moments of the game and as you mentioned I thought we did a good job on it,” Heiland said. “It did benefit us at times, and then at other times we just again we’re just too careless with the ball in certain moments. And they seemed to be critical moments of the game and you can’t do that down the stretch when it’s a tight one and every possession matters.”
The Golden Bears responded with five straight points – Larry Hughes’ basket off an offensive rebound knotting things at 50. Lee, however, had Abington back ahead as he drove in from the right wing, scored and drew a foul, converting the three-point play to make it 53-50 at 2:46.
“I saw that the guy was coming up, he was trying to double,” Lee said. “So went between him and then this other guy trying to help and I knew he was going to foul me.”
Campbell connected on two from the line to cut the margin to 53-52 with 1:01 left. The Bears got the ball back after an Abington travel at 34.8 seconds and Nate Best drew a foul on a drive at 20.3 seconds but could not get either foul shot to fall. Lee collected the rebound, was fouled and hit both free throws for a 53-50 edge.
The Bears looked for the tie but Sean Murphy’s corner three effort was off target and Jones corralled a loose ball and was fouled with 5.6 seconds remaining. Jones connected on the second of two from the line to put Abington up four – the final margin after Best missed a last-second three try from the right wing.
Upper Moreland finishes the 2023 portion of its schedule at the Upper Dublin tournament Dec. 27-28. Abington visits Chester on Friday, Dec. 29.
“I’m looking forward to finishing December strong,” Marsh said. “We had a lot of games, we got tested, I think we got to find out a lot about ourselves. And we still have a lot of work to do obviously if we want to play at an elite level but we’re getting there. And I’m proud of ‘em and again, they responded tonight.”
Abington led 13-11 after the first quarter. Lee started the second quarter with five straight points while a Xander Grasty free throw had the Ghosts up 19-11 with 6:36 left in the half.
Upper Moreland, however, scored the next seven – two Jimmy Perce foul shots at 3:35 making it 18-18. A Khalid Jenkins free throw 15 seconds later ended up being the Ghosts’ final point of the half.
Campbell hit a three to give UM a 21-20 lead with the Bears adding six more points before intermission, Hughes getting a contested layup to fall in, putting the home side up 27-20.
“I think it was Colson Campbell and Anthony Carson were doing a good job of handling the pressure they were applying in the first half and we were knocking down shots, we were making the extra pass and guys were finishing around the rim in the first half,” Heiland said. “I think that was really the difference in the game, the second half we just weren’t finishing enough, we didn’t make enough winning plays and down the stretch making free throws are obviously critical and we had our chances and we just came up short unfortunately.”
After a Carson jumper to start the third, Abington got within six twice – the second time at 33-27 on a Roberts basket – but the Bears stretched the lead to 10 at 39-29 on a three from Campbell.
A Campbell bucket had UM leading 41-33 but the Ghosts’ defensive pressure began paying off as they scored the quarter’s last eight points to pull level at 41.
Abington 56, Upper Moreland 52
Abington: Aaron Jones 3 2 1-2 13; Jeremiah Lee 3 1 4-5 13; Paul Glants 4 1 1-1 12; Jaden Flournoy 3 0 2-5 8; Jon Roberts 3 0-0 6; Damon Rawls 1 0 0-0 2; Xander Grasty 0 0 1-2 1; Khalid Jenkins 0 0 1-2 1; Totals 17 4 10-17 56.
Upper Moreland: Colson Campbell 4 2 6-6 20; Anthony Carson 3 2 0-0 12; Larry Hughes 3 0-0 6; Brayden Martin 2 0 2-4 6; Alex Best 2 0 0-0 4; Sean Murphy 0 0 2-2 2; Jimmy Perce 0 0 2-2 2; Nate Best 0 0 0-2 0; Totals 14 4 12-16 52.
