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District 1 6A: Lower Merion tops Pennsbury in battle for state bid

03/01/2017, 12:45am EST
By Austin Petolillo

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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In the sports world, perhaps no four words invite more drama than “win or go home.”

That was the case for both Pennsbury and Lower Merion boy’s basketball teams, who met Tuesday night in a District 1 6A playback: winner moves onto states, loser is done for the year.

With the stakes at it’s highest, one team showed that no matter the deficit, they were not going to let this be their last game of the season,

That team was the Lower Merion Aces, who stormed back from down as much as 10 points to come out on top over the Pennsbury Falcons, 58-55.

Leading the Aces comeback was senior wing Terrell Jones, who scored 24 points for Lower Merion, while also adding seven rebounds.

As a senior, Jones is used to these pressure filled, raucous crowd, win or go home type of games.

“I love the pressure, I love the big moments, their fan section was crazy, our fan section was crazy, they came out an hour away to cheer us on.” Jones said. “People don’t realize how much fans really help.”

Lower Merion head coach Gregg Downer and the rest of the Aces squad have shown that they perform best in a win or go home situation, going 3-0 in elimination games this season.

“We have fended off three ‘uniform games’ which are games that if we lose any of them, our season is over,” Downer said.

“Five seniors on the team, we knew this could be the last time I ever had Lower Merion across my chest,” Jones said.

Downers Aces faced a bit of an uphill battle. Fighting momentum and trailing by 10 points midway through the second quarter, Downer’s team clawed back to cut the deficit to four at the half.

“We feel like we’re really never out of the game,” Downer said. “If you’re down more than 10, it gets a little hairy, but if we’re within eight or nine, you hit two 3-balls, all of a sudden an eight-point game is now a two-point game.”

While Pennsbury did lead most of the game, senior forward Mark Flagg got into foul trouble late, receiving his fourth foul with 5:55 to go in the fourth quarter.

“The overall key to the game was making sure that Mark Flagg and Addison Howard had to work for everything they could get.” Downer said. “Our goal was to hold them under a combined 30 which is a pretty lofty goal.”

Flagg did finish with a double-double scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds but it still was not enough to push the Falcons to victory; Howard added seven.

The turning point for the game came with 3:12 in the third quarter when Lower Merion connected on four out of their six 3-pointers in the quarter.

“We knew we were going to have to make some 3-balls, we thought we would get some good looks from three,” Downer said. “We were cold early, and then we made three or four big ones in the second half which tightened up the game.”

For seniors like Jones and guard Noah Fennell, they have now advanced to the state tournament in all of their four years as an Ace.

“They’ve been with me since ninth grade, They’ve seen it all in four years,” Downer said. “Big-time players play their best in big time situations.”

Also leading the way for Lower Merion was sophomore guard Steve Payne who had 13 points, six rebounds and four assists, while sophomore wing Jack Forrest had 11 points and three rebounds.

Aside from Flagg’s double-double, Pennsbury also had contributions from junior guard Raylil Winton-Law who scored 15 points, shooting 4-5 from beyond the arc and senior guard Addison Howard who had seven points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Up next for Lower Merion is a Friday date with Downingtown West to determine seedings for the PIAA state tournament.

“When we came into the season we had three goals: win the Central League championship, win 20 games, and get a state bid.” Downer said. “Tonight’s game gave us our 20th win and gave us a state bid so I’m really proud of the guys for that.

“They deserve it.”


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