LOWER MERION — Adam Herrenkohl knew the cat-and-mouse game would come early Tuesday night.
The senior guard knew that if Lower Merion started making 3-pointers at its usual rate, then Chester’s defense would have to press out. He knew that would create lanes behind, to drive or to hit cutters. He knew that with a lead going into the second half, Chester would turn up its full-court press, and that the Aces were ready to pre-emptively press and speed the Clippers up.
Most of all, Herrenkohl knew what to expect when Chester brought the ball up the court with 42 seconds left, having worked hard to tie the game before Herrenkohl put LM ahead with two free throws.
Herrenkohl’s steal helped the Aces turn it on in the final minute after its stall tactics sputtered, scoring seven of the last eight points in a 54-48 win over Chester in the District 1 Class 6A semifinals at the Kobe Bryant Gymnasium.
The win sends the Central League champion Aces (25-1), the district’s top seed, to Saturday’s final. It’ll be an All-Central affair, with No. 14 Garnet Valley claiming its latest upset, 50-46, over No. 2 West Chester Henderson.
Lower Merion had, for a brief moment, appeared to get the tactical tete-a-tete wrong. The Aces led by nine at halftime and by 11 late in the third quarter.
But fourth-seeded Chester (20-2) bridged the quarter break with a 7-0 run. Lower Merion tried to slow the game down, reverting to a four corners attack it had employed early. It backfired, and Daron Harris’ bucket with 1:47 left capped a 14-3 Chester run to tie the game at 47.
“We’ve just got to keep fighting,” Chester guard Dante Atkinson said of the second-half mindset. “We can’t stop. Once you get down, you’ve got to pick yourself up and keep going for it.”
From there, though, Lower Merion outexecuted the Clippers. The Aces went 7-for-10 at the line, not needing to attempt a field goal. Herrenkohl hit two free throws with 1:12 left to nudge the Aces ahead at 49-47.
The next possession, though, was the decider: Chester pushed the ball into the high post to Dominic Toy. But Herrenkohl doubled and slapped the ball away. Carson Kasmer hit two at the line, and Chester never got another look to tie.
“I think that’s complete credit to all of our coaches who scouted,” Herrenkohl said. “They told us before the game, ‘if 5 (Toy) gets it in the post, you double.’ So I give 100 percent credit for that play to them for letting us know what to do in that situation.”
It was the latest counterpunch in a game full of them. Chester led early, Lower Merion hitting just one of its first seven attempts from 3-point range, overly reliant on the jumper. The law of averages leveled it out, as they hit four of their next five to lead 21-18 early in the second quarter.
More importantly, the makes forced Chester’s defense out, opening lanes in behind. John Mobley was authoritative off the dribble with 17 points. Herrenkohl tallied 12 points, plus six rebounds. More vital was his seven assists, most to a cutting Owen McCabe (eight points, all in the middle two quarters).
“Owen and I have played together for years,” Herrenkohl said. “We spent the whole entire summer together. His movement off the ball, his back cuts and my ability to find him, I think it led to a lot for us. He’s one of the best cutters I’ve ever played with in my life.”
The shots never quite came around for Lower Merion, which shot 6-for-24 from 3-point range. Kasmer hit a massive triple early in the fourth, part of his eight points, though he was only 1-for-6 from deep.
Chester was done in by a sloppy final minute of the first half, two turnovers leading to a 9-2 LM spurt. But the Clippers, who had surmounted an eight-point halftime deficit by Coatesville in the quarterfinals, were undeterred.
The surge didn’t materialize until the fourth quarter. Toy, who sat most of the first half with foul trouble, supplied six of his team-high 12 points in the third. But Chester didn’t make headway because Lower Merion turned up at least a token press. It didn’t lead to many mistakes, but sped Chester up enough to prevent easy baskets.
“No one thought we were going to come into this game and try to press that team,” Herrenkohl said. “I love going 100 miles an hour at all times. That’s how we play, and I love to do it.”
Chester’s run was powered by its energy twins. Daron Harris had five of his nine points in the fourth. Jalen Harris had seven on the night. But seven offensive rebounds by Lower Merion in the second half robbed Chester of momentum-building stops.
“We’re supposed to cut those second chances short,” said Atkinson, who scored nine points. “They weren’t supposed to have those.”
Hollow consolation though it was, Chester came as close as any Pennsylvania opponent to hanging a loss on the Aces, whose only loss was to Ohio’s Stow-Munroe. For a team that has defined itself by transmuting last year’s heartbreak of not making districts, Chester knows the territory of bouncing back.
“We’ve got to pick our heads up,” Atkinson said. “We went down, but we’ve got to keep fighting. We take it on the chin and keep pushing through it.”
