Lower Moreland wins crucial BAL matchup with Church Farm

LOWER MORELAND >> Lower Moreland was facing a near do-or-die situation Tuesday night to stay in Bicentennial Athletic League Constitutional Division race. For the first 28 minutes of their contest against Church Farm School, the Lions were brilliant, holding as much as a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter.

The Lions didn’t close the game the way they wanted to, as Church Farm hit them with a 14-0 run while Lower Moreland was trying to run the clock out, but the effort was still good enough for it to get out of dodge with a 62-56 win.

In almost every game, or every game if you ask coach Seth Baron, the Lions will give up a significant height and size advantage so they weren’t intimidated by the towering combination of Church Farm centers Fred Odhiambo and John Bol Ajak, who are both closer to seven feet than six feet tall.

“Coach Baron gave us a great game plan going in,” said Lower Moreland center Jake Fazio, who was giving up 10 inches to Odhiambo on a conservative estimate. “It was to stay above him when he’s in the low post, when he’s in the high post just stay below him and it worked real well in the first and in the second half he got some garbage points.”

Odhiambo got his. Scoring a team-high 17 points with eight points coming in garbage time in the fourth quarter. All of Odhiambo’s seven field goals came on dunks.

“These guys don’t shy away from anything and that’s a great luxury that we have as a coaching staff,” Baron said. “We also were saying constantly, you’re going to get dunked on tonight and all that means is you can get the ball in faster.”

For Lower Moreland, it was business as usual. Danny Duffey did an outstanding job, as always, running the point and getting every player involved as he finished with a game-high 20 points. The points that Duffey scores are really secondary to what provides to the Lions’ offense, as he played a crucial role in running out the clock, beating the Church Farm press break and making all six of his fourth quarter free throws.

“I went from having Jake Cohen as my point guard to having Danny Duffey as my point guard and that’s the most important position on the floor in my opinion,” Baron said. “We haven’t had to practice a lot of press break because Danny is so strong with the ball, draws the attention and the guys around him can handle the ball.”

The Lions had many other contributors on offense as they had five players make at least three field goals and six players with at least six points. Not many teams have the benefit of five players being scoring threats on the floor that way Lower Moreland does.

“In the design of what we built here it’s important that all five guys can score in a couple different ways,” Baron said. “I’ve had teams where two guys did all the scoring and the other three are great defenders but it’s easy to guard when you [only] have two guys out there.”

Lower Moreland will not get to savor its victory for long as it has a tough stretch of game upcoming next week including a rematch with Church Farm and Holy Ghost Prep and a tough bout with New Hope-Solebury.