Upper Moreland pulls away late to beat Lower Moreland
UPPER MORELAND >> Lower Moreland prides itself on being a better team at the end of the season than the beginning. This year, the Lions take the court with a very young team so they might have a bit a steeper learning curve than in years prior.
“Right now I have a 10-man varsity roster and nine guys that never played varsity basketball,” Lower Moreland coach Seth Baron said. “
The Lions hung with Upper Moreland for three-plus quarters of Monday’s non-league contest before the Golden Bears pulled away late in the fourth to secure a 55-47 win.
“We knew they were going to play scrappy and hard,” Upper Moreland coach Matt Heiland said. “I told our guys before the game it was going to be a dogfight tonight and we got to be ready to play. To be honest, to start the game we really weren’t.”
Upper Moreland got off to a sluggish start, falling behind 9-3 early and faced a 12-7 deficit after the first quarter. The Bears found their groove in the second quarter, holding an eight-point lead late in the second quarter but a late push by the Lions made it a 25-22 game at halftime.
“It’s been our M.O. so far this season, we just can’t close out quarters,” Heiland said. “We were up 25-17 with a minute and a half left in the first half and we let it get to 25-22. They scored five points at the end of the second quarter all due to breakdowns in our defensive assignments.”
Throughout the game, Upper Moreland established itself as the dominant team in the paint as the Bears out-rebounded the Lions 29-17 for game and 10-2 in the final quarter.
“We’re going to have to work really hard for our rebounds every night,” Baron said. “I will say one of our best rebounders, Jake Himmlestein, was covering (Damian) Washington and he did a pretty solid job with him. But one of the things was Washington would release on our side so that did pull Jake away, our best rebounder, away from the basket.”
Shane Stone led the Bears rebounding efforts as he finished with a game-high 14 rebounds and a team-high 13 points as Brett Brossman also chipped in with an 11-point performance.
While Lower Moreland knows it’s not at the level it needs to be at quite yet the only way to get experience is by playing games. The Lions confidence won’t waiver as they knows there is still a lot of ball yet to be played this season.
“This group is so gritty,” Baron said. “They practice hard and don’t back down from anybody. You see the guys we put out there size wise and they go up against what ever you throw in their path so I love the mentality of our guys but we’re learning how to play the game the right way.”
