City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Lower Merion senior Eli Rothman rattles the numbers off with ease.

“Eleven new guys, 11 seniors who left...4500 points left our team, and only 39 return.”

That’s the stark reality for Gregg Downer’s Aces. For the last four years, the proud program on Montgomery Avenue has been all about its 2019 class, a group which started with five freshmen on the varsity squad and grew to one short of a dozen by the time they were done. And it wasn’t just the size of the class, it was the talent: eight of those freshmen are playing sports in college, including six playing hoops.

Sharpshooting wing Jack Forrest is at Columbia, high-scoring guard Steve Payne doing a prep year at the Perkiomen School with either a D-I or D-II scholarship in his future, forward Josh Martin is playing at Penn State-Harrisburg, guard Julian Hairston at West Chester, guard Theo Henry at Tufts, guard Darryl Taylor at Northampton CC. Two others, Matt O’Connor and Jalen Goodman, are on the football team at Villanova.

That left the 2019-20 cupboard, as Rothman noted, pretty bare on returning production.

“I don’t think in my entire 30-year career, I’m not sure I ever said goodbye to 11 seniors in one year,” said Aces head coach Gregg Downer, who’s been coaching at the Central League program since 1991, just before a young guard named Kobe Bryant showed up at the school. “Now we’re just trying to reload it, and we have some young kids that we like, and we’re just trying to go 1-0 every game.”

This year’s Aces are completely different from their predecessors, both in terms of the players who are producing and the style of play. 

The most notable change is the size in the middle. Demetrius Lilley, who spent his freshman year at Church Farm, is a 6-foot-8, 250-pound sophomore, and the first Division I recruit in the post the Aces have had since Yohanny Dalembert (James Madison) graduated in 2013. The last few years they’d been operating with the 6-4 Martin in the middle, and while he was a capable high school big man, there’s no doubt that Lilley is at another level.

In a win over Garnet Valley on Tuesday night, Lilley had 19 points and 21 rebounds, following up on a 34-point, 19-rebound outing against Upper Darby. He’s definitely got a ways to go in terms of polishing his game –– he was 8-of-18 from the floor in the win over GV, and a good bunch of his rebounds were on his own second and third-chance efforts –– but with nearly three full seasons until he’s ready for college, the upside is very clear. 

“Having a guy like that that can battle; the Upper Darby game, 19 rebounds, tonight...that could be going into like school record territory,” Downer said. “And when you need an easy basket and you have the luxury to go in there, that’s a luxury a lot of teams really don’t have.”

Though he was born in West Philadelphia and lives in Wynnewood, Lilley plays his AAU ball on the Under Armour circuit with D.C. Premier. He claims an early offer from Texas A&M, and has received some interest from other high-majors, who all like to get in early on promising forward prospects. 

Downer’s Aces (3-1, 2-1 Central League) will always run the same four-out offense, spacing the floor, moving bodies and the ball, and slowing the pace to their tempo when necessary. But having that dump-off option inside can open things up for a group of guards who are still feeling themselves out.

“Last year we were mostly a three-point shooting team, we really relied on high 3-point shooting numbers, but this year if we’re not shooting well we can pound it inside, pound it inside,” Rothman said. “Although we’re running the same plays, we’re focusing more on inside plays, we’re focusing more on getting the ball inside versus certain plays that are set up for 3s.”

Where the previous few years had an imbalanced roster, this one has an even mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. In the win over the Jaguars, Downer used two seniors (Rothman and Lance Chestnut), one junior (Phil Cook), four sophomores (Lilley, Jaylen Shippen, Henry Bard, and Peter Gribbin) and one freshman, Sam Brown. Missing was senior guard James Simples, a usual starter out with an illness.

Downer said the team was still developing its role definitions on both end of the court, and it’s clear he can get production from anybody in his top nine or 10. The eighth man on Tuesday night, Gribben, finished with more points (8) than four starters, and Rothman chipped in 11 as the team’s sixth man.

“I think we rely on the freshmen just as much as we rely on the seniors,” Rothman said. “Although we have senior leadership and that’s definitely an important thing on this team, but one through 16, everyone is expected to be a leader, to do their job and their role, and we really trust all 16 guys on this team.”

Brown, the team’s only freshman in the starting lineup and the only one to see the floor on Tuesday although three others are on the roster, is a left-handed sniper, a 6-2 guard who can fill it up from downtown. He tied Lilley for the team lead with 19 points against GV (3-1, 2-1), going 5-of-11 from deep, and 4-of-4 from the line, with step-backs and catch-and-shoot treys both in his arsenal. 

Shippen, a 6-1 point guard, finished with five points, three rebounds, and three assists against GV, and drew the defensive assignment of Jaguars star point guard Carl Schaller. 

“Really gives us momentum, gives us confidence, a very young team, four freshmen, four sohpomores, and I think this was a big confidence-booster, especially without one of our better players, James,” Rothman said. “I think when he gets back, we’ll really be on a roll.”