Lower Moreland rolls into District 1-AAA final with win over Bishop Shanahan
LOWER GWYNEDD >> The way Lower Moreland plays basketball is like a near infallible chess strategy or a perfect math equation. The Lions play a style of ball where they simply depend on getting more quality possessions in the games 32 minutes than their opponents.
In Wednesday night’s District One AAA semifinal game against Bishop Shanahan, the Lions’ style worked again as they systematically pulled away from the Eagles for a 77-56 win.
“It’s a game of quality possession and typically the team with more quality possessions is going to win,” Lower Moreland senior Danny Duffey said. “Almost every night we’re almost always either physically or athletically out matched. But we find ways and we got guys that just battle.”
There are many key pieces for the Lower Moreland game plan to work. Its best piece — point guard Duffey. Duffey makes his impact felt in every game that he plays and Wednesday night, he took over.
Duffey and the rest of the Lions came out a little too amped up. They missed some home-run passes and missed on some unnecessary risks defensively early in the first quarter. Duffey finished the quarter with four points and was 0-for-2 from the free throw line. Lower Moreland left the quarter with a four-point lead.
“I thought we got really lucky in the first half,” Lower Moreland coach Seth Baron said. “I thought we played good (but) we kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”
In the second quarter, Duffey attacked the basket scoring 16 points including going 9-for-9 from the free throw line, which would start a 17 consecutive made free throw streak for Duffey as he ended the second quarter on a personal 6-0 run.
Duffey opened the third quarter with two more made free throws before even one second elapsed on the game clock as he shot two technical free throws that occurred on a Shanahan assistant coach after the first half buzzer.
“He’s playing the best basketball of his high school career,” said Baron of Duffey, who finished with a game-high 33 points. “What kind of statement is that considering some of the great basketball that he has played. He’s putting together some of his best basketball now.”
A quirk to the Lower Moreland strategy is how it uses one of its disadvantages, its size, to strength. Because teams get eager to exploit the Lions’ size disadvantage, the Lions beat them to it and quickly counter as demonstrated by the way they defended and frustrated Shanahan big man Doug Castin.
“I think it might almost throw those big guys off when you got a little guy on you,” Duffey said. “I might be a little unnatural and we can use our quickness to our advantage so I think it definitely throws teams off.”
Lower Moreland’s strategy will face a huge, in fact, its biggest test of the season Saturday night when its takes on Holy Ghost Prep for the district championship 8 p.m. Saturday at Council Rock South. The meeting will be the fourth of the season for the two teams with the Lions getting the better of the last two.
“It’s good to play a team that you’re comfortable with and it’s horrible that you’re comfortable with because they know you,” Baron said. “There’s nothing that we’re going to do that they haven’t seen and vice a versa. We’ve gotten the best of them the last two times and the only thing tougher than beating Ghost twice is beating them three times.”
