City of Basketball Love

James Middleton (@jmmiddleton33) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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WEST CHESTER — For Lower Merion junior John Mobley, the goal of the summer was putting on muscle. Thirty pounds of muscle, to be exact, and the main contributor was Wawa.

“I was always at the park or the gym, so literally, I’ll be at Wawa for breakfast, grab like five things for lunch, and then dinner whatever my mom made,” Mobley said. The go-to meal was a barbeque chicken quesadilla, usually having two or three a day over the summer — in addition to a wrap and a protein shake — but Wawa for breakfast and lunch was a common occurrence. 

He’d spent the last year getting beat up by now-Penn State freshman Demetrius Lilley in practice, the 6-foot-9 bruiser no easy guard for anybody, much less a 6-2 wing forward who weighed about 150 pounds, a series of injuries making it tough for Mobley to get to where he wanted to be physically.

So it became frequent trips to the Montgomery Avenue Wawa, which in conjunction with a (somewhat) healthy summer and a healthy weightlifting plan meant he bulked up to 180 pounds entering the fall, then lost a couple to get in playing shape for the season. The goal was 5,000 calories per day, and that’s work in itself.

“Every time you would see me,” he said. “I’d always be eating, I’d always be working out…I was always at the park, or at the gym.”

All of the quesadillas and lessons from Lilley are certainly paying off. Now starting on the Aces’ varsity squad, Mobley’s a crucial part of a team that’s hoping to make it a three-peat in the Central League and District 1 6A. 

Mobley was all over the place on Friday night at West Chester, coming up with a stat-sheet-stuffing effort as Lower Merion took down Coatesville, 63-53, as part of the Ches-Mont Challenge tripleheader. 

“It felt great,” he said afterwards. “Yesterday we played Haverford, we had a tough loss to them. We just wanted to hit our assignments today, come out strong…we started off strong, slowed down in the second, came back in the third and just kept it going.”

Playing a combo forward role where he was constantly finding open spaces in the Coatesville defense, Mobley put in a 10-point, six-assist, seven-rebound evening as a still-learning Lower Merion (3-1) handled the Coatesville press with ease.

Lower Merion coach Gregg Downer has been excited to see how Mobley has progressed since the offseason, seeing the junior growing into his frame, giving the 33rd-year coach a nice burst of athleticism and size in the frontcourt.

“He’s a great athlete, and with us being a little undersized this year, we are kind of calling him a Swiss Army knife,” Downer said. “Calling upon him to do a lot of things.”

An Ardmore native, Mobley went to St. Margaret's through middle school, and when it came to making a decision for high school he wanted to stay in a Catholic school. Mobley ended up attending Roman Catholic, where his brother had gone, for his freshman year, but after his first year he transferred to Lower Merion hoping for a fresh start in school and on the court.

As a sophomore, Mobley found himself on the Aces’ varsity roster as they won the District 1 6A title for the second time in a row, being one of the end-of-bench guys bringing energy to the team. In practice, he often found himself in the position of guarding Lilley, a versatile bruiser and one of the most skilled offensive posts in the region.

“Meech was like a big brother to me,” Mobley said. “Having to guard him, he just really taught me a lot about how to use my body and get by quicker and bigger guys.” Mobley said. 

The changing of the guard down low means Lower Merion has to play a little differently this year. Without a true space-eater at center, Downer has the Aces playing a lot more five-out and floor-spacing offense, no longer going inside-out but trying to attack from the outside in, led by senior guards Sam Brown (Penn) and Sam Wright.

With nobody above 6-3 in the starting lineup, and nobody matching that description in the Aces’ top reserves, Mobley’s one of their few options to mix it up on the boards and give them some kind of interior presence.

“Right now, Coach Downer has me guarding most of their bigger guys. He wants me to always crash the glass, trying to get as many boards as possible,” Mobley said. “Being like, I guess you could call it a bruiser player, diving on the ground, doing anything that can help the team get better.”

Brown (19 points) and Wright (12 points) still handled plenty of the offensive load against Coatesville (2-1), with senior guard Teddy Pendergrass III adding a dozen more.

The Aces dominated the first (20-6) and third (20-8) quarters, Coatesville taking the second (23-15) to stay within six at halftime before Lower Merion raced away again out of the break. Lower Merion turned it over just nine times against Coatesville’s press, reserve guards Owen McCabe and Justin Poles playing a part in that as well, LM constantly getting fast-break opportunities out of the press and feeding each other for layups.

“I think we have a more athletic team than last year, so I believe that us playing fast is our best trait,” Mobley said. “We have a great offense, we have great players, great skills, and we’re quick, so running is just great for us.”

Mobley’s teammates are happy to see him back on the court, as he has had to deal with his fair share of injuries. Mobley has overcome injuries from his final football season this fall, and an injury from basketball over the summer. During football, he broke his thumb, partially tore his Achilles, and tore some ligaments in his fingers. Over the summer, Mobley partially tore his quad and dislocated his knee while grabbing a rebound in an offseason game. 

He’s hopeful he’s finally put all that behind him.

“It’s great to see him on the court, because we need him,” Wright said. “His development as an athlete has really helped him skyrocket on the court. Just being able to get places with his athleticism.

Now that he’s fully focused on basketball, Mobley is looking to continue working on his shot, trying to put himself back together since his injury. With the rest of this season and next year remaining in Mobley’s high school career, his teammates can’t wait to see where he goes.

“He’s a great kid,” Wright said. “He’s really helped our team so far this year, and I just can’t wait to see him grow as a basketball player.”

By Quarter
Lower Merion: 20  |  15  |  20  |   8   ||  63
Coatesville:      6   |  23  |   8   |  16  ||  53

Shooting
Lower Merion: 25-46 FG (9-23 3PT), 4-7 FT
Coatesville: 19-47 FG (7-21 3PT), 8-8 FT

Scoring
Lower Merion: Brown 19, Wright 12, Pendergrass III 12, Mobley 10, Poles 4, McCabe 3, Meekins 3

Coatesville: Harris 13, A. Fowlkes 13, Kennedy 9, Marshall 6, Peoples 6, Proctor 2, W. Fowlkes 2