Ardmore – Qualifying for the PIAA Class AAAA state tournament is becoming an annual habit for Lower Merion, who clinched their sixth consecutive state tourney berth – and their 10th in the last 12 years – with a 64-48 win against No. 27 seed Upper Dublin Tuesday.
The Aces won the second-round District One playoff game fairly handily, and by the middle of the fourth quarter, Lower Merion fans were chanting, “We want ‘Stoga” once they found out the Pioneers upset third seed Downingtown West and would play the 11th-seeded Aces in the third round of Districts.
Leading the way for the Lower Merion attack was 6-4 junior guard Terrell Jones, who paced the Aces with 13 points and dished out numerous assists to LM teammates under the basket.
“Some of my shots weren’t falling tonight,” said Jones, who hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to defeat Penn Wood in overtime 68-66 in the first round of Districts Feb. 12. “When that happens, I look to go to the rim, or look for the open man.”
The Lower Merion junior guard, who also grabbed eight rebounds, added, “We were looking to slow down [6-1 senior guard John Barrett] tonight – we wanted to take away his 3’s, They have a lot of guys who can score – No. 3 (senior guard Ben Abel), No. 12 (6-foot-5 Will Derr) and No. 21 (6-3 senior forward Jimmy Gallagher).”
Early in the game, Upper Dublin was penetrating the Aces’ defense, and the visitors hung tough in the Bryant Gymnasium until early in the second quarter.
Lower Merion head coach Gregg Downer said, “We were trying to speed it up early in the game, with a full court man-to-man, and Upper Dublin was getting some early looks at the rim. Our defense [overall] was OK, not great.”
Eraly in the second quarter, Lower Merion began a 16-4 run to pull away. The Aces controlled the second quarter, with 6-foot-6 junior forward Dion Harris and 6-foot-8 senior Jeremy Horn scoring inside and KJ Helton providing long-range points.
Late in the second quarter, Lower Merion senior guard Zach Magill nailed a three-pointer from the right corner; then seconds later made a nice interception of an Upper Dublin pass headed out of bounds, flipped the ball to an LM teammate and saw freshman guard Steve Payne score inside to make it 32-16.
Upper Dublin head coach Josh Adelman said, “I thought it was a good game, to start with. But they made a good run, and we started to play one-on-many, and you just can’t do that against a team that good. They built that lead, and they’re tough to come back on.”
The Aces had a balanced attack, as Noah Fennell tallied 11 points (including 6-for-8 from the free-throw line, Horn and Helton tallied 10 each and Harris scored nine (all in the first half). Harris also grabbed seven rebounds.
The Cardinals played without the services of 6-4 senior forward Ryan Stover and 6-5 senior forward Isaiah Henrich. Adelman said they did not play due to “A coach’s decision. And it’s a different game with those two guys.”
The contest featured a number of turnovers and loose balls on both sides.
Downer noted, “I thought the game was [kind of] sloppy, it did not have a nice flow. But we had 13 assists and 12 turnovers [for the game], and that’s not bad.”
Upper Dublin 6-3 senior forward Jimmy Gallagher led all scorers with 16 points. Cardinal teammate John Barrett chipped in with 11.
