City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Ever since his team got out to a hot start against J.P. McCaskey and cruised to a victory over the central Pa. powerhouse back in December, Lower Merion head coach Gregg Downer has been waiting to see his team play a complete 32 minutes.

His Aces couldn’t have picked a better time to finally put it all together than facing Central League archrival Conestoga in the District 1 AAAA quarterfinals.

Fueled by dreams of a semifinal at Temple University and two earlier defeats at the hands of the Pioneers, Lower Merion came out with its best start of the season and cruised to a 68-45 win in front of a packed house at Kobe Bryant Gymnasium.

“It feels crazy, going into the season nobody thought that we had a chance to make it here,” senior guard K.J. Helton said in a jubilant Aces locker room afterwards. “Proved a lot of doubters wrong, it feels great.”

Lower Merion, the No. 11 seed in the tournament, advances to the semifinals to take on No. 2 seed Plymouth Whitemarsh.

It’s the first time the Aces have made the district semifinals in three years, when future Division I student-athletes B.J. Johnson (Syracuse/La Salle) and Yohanny Dalembert (James Madison) led the program to the finals, then held at Villanova, before losing to Chester.

They made it to the District quarterfinals in both 2014 and 2015, but suffered road losses both years to fall just short of playing on North Broad. This year, Lower Merion didn’t have to leave the Bryant gym to get there, benefitting from upsets by No. 27 Upper Dublin (over No. 6 Abington) and No. 14 Conestoga (over No. 3 Downingtown West) to play all of its district games thus far in front of a mostly-friendly crowd.

“I’ve lost this game multiple times on the road and we’ve won all of them at home,” Downer said. “I’m 3-0 in the quarterfinals at home, I’m like 0-3 on the road. The stars were kind of aligned with the home game, and our guys were ready.”

Unlike many of their predecessors, this team doesn’t have any players with current Division I offers. Several of the key seniors, including Helton, are just hoping to land with a Division III program next fall; big man Jeremy Horn will be playing at Claremont McKenna (Cali.) in the fall.

“It feels so good because nobody on this team had much hype coming into the year,” said Horn, a 6-foot-9 center. “K.J. was the fifth starter (last year), I came out of nowhere to block a few shots, there was like no returning playing time.”

Helton and Horn were two of the four Lower Merion players who finished in double figures as their team avenged losses of 12 points and six points from the regular season.

And the Aces did so in impressive fashion.

After Helton missed the first shot of the game, he responded with a layup and a 3-point play to give his team an early five-point cushion. That’s when junior guard Noah Fennell took over, knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers and adding a third before the midway point of the opening quarter as the Aces began the game with a 16-0 lead.

The first two were off feeds from Helton, but the third was all Fennell, who pulled up with a hand in his face and drained it from the left wing.

“K.J. was driving to the basket a lot which opened me up, his two early baskets opened me up,” Fennell said. “I was just feeling it...when I’m hot, it’s an awesome feeling, so I’ve just got to take advantage of that.”

The 6-foot-tall junior guard finished with a team-high 18 points, including a fourth 3-pointer in the opening quarter to help his team to a 21-10 advantage at that point. Conestoga kept it even through the next two quarters, as Lower Merion’s lead was 36-26 at the half and 44-35 after three quarters.

Aside from briefly making it a six-point game midway through the third, Conestoga was never able to build up enough momentum to swing things back in its favor.

“Credit Lower Merion, I thought they were very well-prepared and they did a very good job tonight,” said Pioneers coach Mike Troy, whose team will enter the PIAA tournament seeding rounds with a matchup against No. 7 Central Bucks West on Tuesday. “Didn’t come out with our normal energy, and I have to take responsibility for that.”

Conestoga senior point guard Darryl Caldwell led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting, but no other Conestoga player made more than two shots or scored in double figures.

Horn and Helton closed things out for Lower Merion, scoring a combined 17 points in a fourth quarter that saw the Aces dump in 24 points over the closing eight minutes.

When Helton wasn’t carving his way through the ‘Stoga ‘D’ for layups, he was collecting his six assists largely by dumping off to Horn, whose 17 points and seven rebounds were proof of the tremendous strides he’s made over the last year.

“We wouldn’t be here without Jeremy,” Helton said. “He’s gotten crazy better since freshman year. He can catch, he can finish, he has better feet than he had, he’s a huge part of our success.”

Junior wing Terrell Jones (11 points) rounded out the double-figure scorers for Lower Merion, who will face Rider commit Xzavier Malone and the rest of the talented Colonials on Tuesday.

No matter what happens, the Aces have already proven the doubters wrong.

"It feels awesome, it’s something that I don’t think any of us has ever done, it’s really an honor to get in that spot," Helton said. "We were really trying to (Temple), it was one of our goals and we’re just really happy that we got there.”

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Friday's District 1 AAAA Results
No. 11 Lower Merion 68, No. 14 Conestoga 45 (Game story)
No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh 43, No. 7 C.B. West 41 (Game story)
No. 9 Chester 49, No. 17 C.B. East 33
No. 4 Ridley 54, No. 12 Spring-Ford 50 (Game story)

Play-Back Round
No. 5 Pennridge 61, No. 20 Perkiomen Valley 42
No. 18 Academy Park 71, No. 10 Phoenixville 58 (Game story)
No. 3 Downingtown West 63, No. 27 Upper Dublin 59
No. 26. Hatboro-Horsham 66, No. 1 Coatesville 57

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Tuesday's District 1 AAAA Semifinals
Liacouras Center, Temple University
No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh vs. No. 11 Lower Merion (6 PM)
No. 4 Ridley vs. No. 9 Chester (7:30 PM)

Seeding Rounds
Higher seeds host
No. 12 Spring-Ford vs. No. 17 C.B. East
No. 7 C.B. West vs. No. 14 Conestoga

Play-Back Elimination Games
Higher seeds host
No. 5 Pennridge vs. No. 18 Academy Park
No. 3 Downingtown West vs. No. 26 Hatboro-Horsham