District One boys basketball: Lower Merion rallies again to earn 7th consecutive state berth

The Lower Merion boys’ basketball team rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit for a 58-55 victory at No. 6 seed Pennsbury Tuesday in the PIAA District One 6A tournament.

With the victory, the 10th-seeded Aces (20-8) have locked up a berth in the upcoming PIAA 6A state tournament. Had they lost Tuesday, the Aces’ season would have been over.

Four days earlier, the Aces rallied from a 37-27 deficit with four minutes to play against Central Bucks East, and won in triple overtime, 58-54, at Bryant Gymnasium. Again, it was a win-or-go-home scenario.

It will be Lower Merion’s seventh consecutive trip to the PIAA state tournament – the longest current streak in District One.

“This is a special team that had to play 108 minutes of win-or-go-home basketball to earn the state bid,” said Lower Merion head coach Gregg Downer. “You hope your team is resilient in key moments, and this team has proved it.

“We’ve had outstanding senior leadership from Terrell Jones and Noah Fennell, a ‘Refuse To Lose’ attitude instilled in the players in our program, and a very tough non-league schedule that gets us as battle-tested as possible [for the post-season].”

Tuesday, the Aces ended the game on a 26-13 run. Terrell Jones led the Aces with 24 points, which included a trio of treys. Lower Merion hit 10 three-point field goals, including two each from Steve Payne (13 points), Darryl Taylor and Jack Forrest.