Wave topple SER

• Abington slips past Southeastern Regional, 61-60.

By Peter Badavas

ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT

EASTON — In sports, some­times experience wins out over athleticism.

Such was the case on Friday night at Southeastern Regional High School, as Abington High and its 12 seniors posted a 61-60 victory over a junior-laden, but very athletic, Hawks squad.

Southeastern (0-2), playing up a division for a second consecutive game after losing to Div. 1 New Bedford in its season opener, gave the Green Wave all they could handle before Abington (3-0) went on a 13-2 run over the final five minutes to walk away with a hard-fought victory.

"They're a grizzled up team." said Southeastern coach Dean Du-quette after the loss. "Wells, Dunn and those guys are just tough, sol­id athletes."

Abington certainly showed how "tough and solid" it can be trailing, 52-48, in the final min­utes.

Following 3-pointer to make the score 61-54 with just un­der two minutes remaining.

That final 3-pointer would be just enough for Abington as Southeastern senior Shane Cole-man would hit two 3-pointers in the final minute, including one as time expired, to make for the final 61-60.

Coleman,    a    sharp-shooting

lefty, would connect on seven 3-pointers on the evening for a game-high 30 points. Coleman kept the Hawks in the game in the first half of play as he scored 18 of his team's 28 points before inter­mission.

"Shane's a super kid," said Duquette. "He's coming off an ankle injury that sidelined him for six weeks in the off-season, and he's really only been back for two weeks now, so he's getting his tim­ing down."

With Abington leading, 30-28 ,at halftime, Southeastern would come out aggressive to begin the second half on a quick 6-0 run.

A basket and a pair of free throws by junior forward Mike Campbell (12 points and seven re­bounds) sandwiched between a layup by center Sidney Collier (four points, six rebounds) com­prised that run.

But Abington would once again rely on its senior leadership as Kalianiotis (11 points) would hit a big 3-pointer to stop the run and bring the deficit to 34-33. For the next few minutes, the teams would exchange baskets, before Abington would go on its big run to close out the game.

Abington coach Don Byron felt that 3-pointer by Kalianiotis turned things around for his team in the second half.

"At that time of the game, Kalianiotis' three was a big one," said Byron. "They had us on the ropes for a while, but we made a couple of individual plays. Timely things happened at the end for us."

Byron credits his players for those plays down the stretch. "Matt Caseley made some big plays down the stretch. He makes big plays, and he's done that for a couple of years now. And Wells showed his poise. When you need to settle down the offense, he runs the point. He will play the front-court. He does a lot of stuff."

Aside from Abington's final run, the contest was evenly matched, as the seven-point lead the Green Wave built during the run was the largest lead by either team, as they exchanged baskets all night.

Abington committed fewer turnovers (15-13) and out-rebounded the Hawks (34-32).

"That's a scary team. It's at least a league champion team and a contender in the South," Byron said of Southeastern.a timeout, senior guard Tim Wells (team-high 18 points) started the run modestly by hitting one of two free throws.

The Hawks and junior Terrel Clark would answer with a layup. That's when things would get in­teresting for the Green Wave.

Abington center Tom Martin (13 points and 13 rebounds) would score on a layup off a rebound. That was followed by a three-point play by Matt Casely (11 points and five rebounds) to tie the score at 54.

On the next play, Casely would steal the ball and find Wells for a fast-break layup to take the lead. From there, the Green Wave would not look back as Wells would find Martin on a beautiful bounce pass to go up, 58-54, before James Kalianiotis would finish off the run with a long