City of Basketball Love

Corky Blake (@corkyblake)
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Even without touching the ball on offense, Lower Merion senior center Demetrius Lilley made an early impact on the Aces’ easier-than-expected 72-44 romp over Scranton in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals Wednesday night at Freedom High School.

The District 2 champion Knights paid so much attention to where the 6-foot-9, 230-pound Lilley was setting up down low against their zone defense, they were unable to locate Lower Merion’s 3-point sharpshooters.

“Our plan today was to take our time, keep our composure,” said Lilley, a Penn State signee. “We wanted to play inside-out, screen and roll, roll hard to the post. I wanted to rebound for my teammates.”

It was a Sam’s Club type of start for Lower Merion (27-3). The District 1 champion scored the first 12 points of the game with junior guard Sam Brown drilling a pair of 3-pointers. Junior guard Sam Wright swished a 3, and the Aces were on their way to the state’s Final Four for the 16th time in school history behind a 15-2 advantage with 3:09 still remaining in the first quarter.

“We had a lot of respect for their team, but we came in with a lot of energy and our crowd helped us with that,” Wright said. “Sam (Brown) had a great start so we were feeding him, and then we went to feeding Demetrius.”

“I told the kids at one point in a timeout we were up 15-2 and Demi had one touch (for a field goal),” veteran Lower Merion coach Gregg Downer said.

Don’t worry, Lilley’s unselfish play didn’t go unrewarded. 

After point guard Jaylen Shippen deposited a 3 for a 23-12 lead with 5:45 left until halftime, Lilley scored the Aces’ final 14 points by overpowering Scranton’s back line for five field goals and four free throws. His dunk off a pass from senior reserve Peter Gribben set the intermission difference at 37-18.

“It’s a delicate balance,” said Downer referring to how his team attacks opponents offensively. “We were shooting 3s well, and he (Lilley) finished with 30.”

Indeed, Lilley stuffed his stat line with 30 points on 12-of-16 shooting, 5-of-5 from the foul line, 12 rebounds and an assist.

Lilley’s corner 3 was part of the Aces’ 12-3 start to the third quarter that silenced any Scranton (23-4) comeback ideas.

Wright backed Lilley with 15 points and Brown collected 11 of his 13 in the first quarter.

Wright also was key to Lower Merion blanketing Scranton 6-5 senior guard Jason Shields, who led District 2 with a 21.8 ppg average. Shields was limited to five shots and made one in the first half, though he was 4-of-4 from the foul line. He finished with 12 points but was never a factor.

“No. 3 (Shields) had our full respect,” Downer said. “We wanted to put a lot of traffic around him, play a man-and-a-half on him.”

Most times, Wright was the man shadowing Shields with occasional relief from senior forward Henry Bard.

“Sam (Wright) played an excellent all-around game for us,” Downer said. “Shippen’s our star defender but he was a little under the weather tonight so we juggled some things and put Sam on him most of the time.”

Lower Merion, which has defeated Chambersburg, Abington and Scranton, now will go up against District 12 kingpin Roman Catholic in Saturday’s semifinals as it seeks to win its first state title since 2013, when B.J. Johnson (Syracuse/La Salle), Raheem Hall and Yohanny Dalembert (James Madison) led the way.

“This feels amazing,” Lilley said. “I can’t wait to play again.”

By Quarter

Scranton:        10 |  8  | 14 | 12 || 44
Lower Merion: 20 | 17 | 24 | 11 || 72

Shooting

Scranton: 14-35 (overall), 6-16 (3s), 10-12 (FT)

Lower Merion: 27-43, 8-17, 10-11

Scoring

Scranton: Arvel Chandler 13, Jason Shields 12, AJ DInterman 4, Dillon Lazdowsky 4, Josh Williams 4, Kole Conforti 3, Rykeese Cenord 2, Paul Gammaitoni 2.

Lower Merion: Demetrius Lilley 30, Sam Wright 15, Sam Brown 13, Jaylen Shippen 7, Henry Bard 4, Carson Kasmer 3.