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Abington buries Snowden to reach Div. 4 state final

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BOSTON — Abington had a taste of the state championship floor last season and wanted some more.

The Green Wave (22-5) finished off back-to-back Eastern Massachusetts championships with a 67-51 victory over North Champion Snowden in Division 4 play at the TD Garden.

The win puts Abington back into the state finals this Saturday as they will try and win the Division 4 state title after falling just short in 2019. Matthew Maguire scored 14 of his 25 points in the pivotal third quarter for Abington to lead all scorers and send his team back for another shot at state supremacy.

“Coaches told me at halftime to keep going and some of them would start falling. I just had to keep that confidence,” said Maguire about the lack of points overall in the first half of the game. “You know what separates us from a lot of teams is we have a lot of depth and we go deep into our bench and they give us sparks off the bench every game.”

Both teams struggled shooting in the first half as Abington came into the contest averaging 73 points in the state tournament. The Green Wave also capitalized on some uncharacteristic sloppy play in the backcourt for the Cougars (18-5). Senior forward Cameron Curney and point guard Antwonne Graham were doing all the little things to keep things close for the Green Wave as they held a 22-16 lead at the halftime break.

“It was a matter of staying true to what we were trying to do and not get caught up in the fact that we were missing as we had some clean looks and they didn’t fall,” said Abington head coach Peter Serino, who is in his fifth year at the helm.

But the third quarter was an avalanche of issues for Snowden. After getting a much-needed spark from Maquise Miller off the bench, the doors and tires fell off the Snowden bandwagon as Maguire kept shooting and finally found the bottom of the net while the Green Wave defense kept up the pressure.

The swarming extended zone of the Green Wave produced 30 turnovers in total and a 10-2 run with three minutes to go in the third essentially ended any Cinderella ideas for the Cougars. Maguire’s second trey of the quarter gave him 20 points at the end of three and Abington their largest lead at that point of the game, 47-30. Snowden head coach Paul Rogers pointed to the turnovers and lack of free throw shooting down the stretch.

“Turnovers and 13 missed free throws, that’s the story of the game — no doubt about it. I still love my team, but Abington played harder than us tonight and deserve to move on,” said Rogers. “(Maguire) was the guy that we had to stop and couldn’t let him shoot threes, we needed to locate him on the catch, and unfortunately we did a poor job on that.”

The fourth quarter was anti-climactic as the Green Wave stretched their lead to 21 and cruised the rest of the way as the benches were emptied midway through the final quarter. Curney finished with plenty of bumps and bruises from this his effort and hustle but it all paid dividends in the end as the senior forwarded finished with a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

“Everyone goes hard everyday because everyone wants to be here because we all love basketball,” said Curney, who earned the Green Wave hard hat of the game for his efforts. “Matty is going to get hot, so we are just trying to work hard and trying to move fast and we know we are good ball players so once we get fast once we start working hard we know the shots are going to start to fall.”

Jarod McClanahan finished with a team-high 13 points for the Cougars while Javier Ellis was outstanding on the glass with 11 rebounds for Snowden, who will return all but one (Ellis) player next season as they regroup for a run in 2021.

“We are excited but last year is last year and I’m really proud of that team and what they accomplished. I am really proud of this team and what they have accomplished — they are two separate years,” added Serino. “We are fortunate that we have that experience and hopefully it will motivate us and keep us hungry and we will have a little sense of urgency. Having been there and just missed an opportunity to win the state championship, so we are excited, and what it means for our program…is a lot — we’ve come a long way.”


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