Lower Moreland scorches from 3 in PIAA AAA 1st round win over Milton Hershey
NEW HOLLAND >> When Tyler Millan sank the first shot of the game for Lower Moreland, a 3-pointer from the left wing, it was like dropping a lit match into a barrel of gasoline.
All season, Lower Moreland had been waiting for its self-proclaimed “Splash Brothers” or “Three Musketeers” to all get hot in the same game. Finally, Millan, Dicky Rhoads and Nick Smolda were all locked in on the same night and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The trio, also affectionately dubbed “The Three Stooges” by coach Seth Baron, combined for 14 made 3-pointers as the Lions stunned favored Milton Hershey 67-56 in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA tournament Friday night at Garden Spot.
@LMBasketball1 celebrates its 67-56 PIAA win over Milton Hershey pic.twitter.com/ddOASHfpFo
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) March 5, 2016
“We talked all week about how we wanted to make history for our school and that gave us so much motivation,” Millan said. “We keep telling each other to keep shooting. If one of us misses we’re telling him to keep shooting.”
“That’s what it’s all about when you’re out there, just having fun and not thinking about it,” Rhoads added.
“I think we were all jumping around yelling ‘let’s go,’ and ‘The Splash Brothers are back,’ “ Smolda said.
The Spartans were most certainly an imposing matchup, a rangy, athletic and tough team that had just two losses all season coming in as the third seed out of District 3. While the Lions aren’t afraid to play an up-tempo game either, they didn’t fall into Milton Hershey’s pace and instead kept their game at their speed all night.
Of course, the first step to beating Milton Hershey was getting over the last game, a rough loss to rival Holy Ghost Prep in the District I final. Baron said it took a few days, longer than usual for his crew, but after a spirited scrimmage against Conwell-Egan, the Lions got back to themselves.
Then Danny Duffey found Millan for 3 to start the game and it was on.
“It gave us more motivation to win the game knowing we were underdogs,” Smolda said. “We’re not usually the underdogs a lot so when we are we have to take it and use it.”
Smolda and Rhoads flipped roles Friday, with Rhoads starting and Smolda coming in off the bench. The guard came in hot, hitting his first two shots, both 3s, in the second quarter. After Millan hit his three to open things up, Rhoads hit one and the fire was already starting to burn.
Duffey, usually the team’s catalyst, didn’t post a high scoring total with just eight points, but he dished out seven assists and played stout defense on Milton Hershey’s superb guard Don’Yae Baylor-Carroll. Baylor-Carroll did have a game-high 24, but some of the shots he made, like an NBA range 3 and another with Duffey draped all over him, weren’t easy.
No other Spartan scored more than nine points as Lower Moreland engineered a great defensive plan, with the Lions rotating into help and recovering expertly.
“We’ve run and jumped the last two years and we know against this team, that would have been really tough,” Baron said. “We played a real solid perimeter defensive game and the kids did a great job. In the fourth quarter, they slid in for a couple layups finally but we made some adjustments and shut them down.”
Millan, who led Lower Moreland with 20 points, five made 3-pointers and 10 huge rebounds, had nine in the first quarter as Lower Moreland trailed 17-16. Smolda’s insertion and nine second quarter points sparked a 16-6 frame as the Lions took a 32-23 lead into the break.
Smolda finished up with 19 points, also hitting five triples while Rhoads had 16 and sank four from outside the arc. Rhoads also had four rebounds and four assists, three of them coming in critical moments in the fourth quarter.
“(Duffey) usually puts us on his shoulders so tonight we had to put him on our shoudlers,” Smolda said. “He’s the team leader so we have to help him out.”
“We felt like it was going to be a good shooting night after the first two went in for me and Ty,” Rhoads said. “Once Smolda came in and hit one off the bench, we knew it was going to be our night.”
“We really stressed one more pass and to even get to that third option,” Baron said. “If the third option is Nick Smolda on the perimeter, what more do you want? I’ll take that any day of the week.”
Milton Hershey came back with a huge counterpunch to end the third quarter, closing on a 14-3 run to erase Lower Moreland’s lead and take a 44-43 edge into the final quarter. Baylor-Carroll keyed the run as the heavily pro-Spartan crowd roared to life for a few moments.
There wasn’t any panic on the Lions bench though and Smolda started the fourth by canning a trey off a Duffey pass with 7:33 left to put LM back in front for good.
“At that break I made sure we were focused on the same objective and that’s one basket at a time,” Baron said. “Every possession we stress we’re down by two and we came out and responded.”
Lower Moreland barely lost the rebounding battle, 35-32 and much of that had to do with Millan’s 10, Coby Wiggins’ five big boards and senior Jake Fazio’s usual grinder work. Baron pointed to one sequence where Fazio came in and drew an immediate charge as his impact. The trio of Millan, Smolda and Rhoads also ended their interview by shouting out their tenacious teammate.
Rhoads followed Smolda’s fourth-quarter trey with one of his own then Smolda scored or assisted the next nine points to put the Lions up 58-49 with 2:52 to play. Three of those hoops were all set up by offensive rebounds as well.
One thing that never went away was Lower Moreland’s looks from outside. Baron felt the key to scoring on Milton Hershey would be the second or third pass on offense and the Lions didn’t just jack up a shot on the first sliver of space they saw.
“The third quarter they tried to come out and slowed us down a little bit,” Millan said. “But we adjusted well and knew what to do.”
Lower Moreland closed the game out by going 5-of-7 at the line and getting two buckets from Wiggins to give the program its first-ever state win at the AAA level. The Lions will face District 11 champ and 28-0 Pottsville in the second round on Tuesday.
Until then, LM’s shooters are going to do anything they can to stay hot.
“These guys step up and play big in big games,” Baron said. “A 3-point shot is a high-percentage shot for us. We have great shooters and they finally put it all together, all of them in the same night. It was awesome to watch.”
