City of Basketball Love

Max Buchdahl (@max_buchdahl)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's "Prepping for Preps," our series of articles previewing area high school teams for the 2015-16 season. For the complete list of schools previewed so far, click here)

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The Lower Moreland Lions went undefeated in league play last season, and had lost just one game all year going into a District 1 AAA semi-final matchup against Glen Mills.

As the clock ticked down in a tied game, Glen Mills center Anthony Johnson lined up a three from the corner and hit a buzzer-beater to end the Lions’ district run--and considering only two teams from the district make it to the state playoffs, their season as well.

It was a heartbreaking end to an otherwise historic season for Lower Moreland, as they finished with a combined 25-2 record. The returning players, however, already have their minds set on this upcoming season.

Senior guard and team captain Danny Duffey leads a group of talented seniors, some of whom have been playing together since elementary school.

“They’re a very special class,” said Lower Moreland head coach Seth Baron, who is entering his fifth season in the position. “This group comes to fight every single day. Nobody is going to beat them without knowing they were in a battle.”

After the sour taste left in their mouths given the disappointing end to last season, there’s no question about the expectation that many of these seniors have for their final run at Lower Moreland: a district championship.  

“This might be the last time we’re going to play competitive basketball with each other,” senior guard and co-team captain Tyler Millan said. “We want to leave our mark.”

This group of seniors holds themselves to a high standard, and is putting a lot of pressure on themselves to pick up the program’s first district championship since the 2007-08 season..

Among the other key players is 3-point sharpshooter Nick Smolda, who was consistently at the top of the district’s 3-point shooting rankings last year.

Seniors Dickey Rhoades, Mike Gould, and Jake Fazio are also expected to be parts of the rotation and play key roles for the Lions.

One of the biggest differences for this year’s Lions team is their lack of size. They lost Phil Madden, a 6-foot-6 forward and top rebounder, to graduation. The team also lost starting guard Matt Cerutti, a 6-3 junior who transferred to Archbishop Wood.

While it won’t be easy to replace both the size and talent of those two key members of last year’s team, the Lions are still confident that they can fill the voids that Madden and Cerutti left.

“No one is going to do what they did,” Duffey said. “But collectively, we can fill that void.”

Baron and his coaching staff are expecting junior forward/center Colby Wiggins to play a much larger role this year. Wiggins is among the tallest members of this year’s team, although he stands at only 6-3.  

Despite this lack of size, the Lions pride themselves on being a running team. They’re looking to make up for their lack of size by pressuring bigger teams full-court, hoping to force opponents to turn the ball over and allowing themselves to dictate the pace of the game.

Duffey is a key part of that physical team philosophy. As Baron and his coaching staff prepares for their final season with this talented senior group, the Lions point guard is thinking about his own basketball future.

The two-time Bicentennial League Player of the Year is seeking to become the first player in program history to finish his career with 1,000 points and 500 assists.

He currently has 866 career points and 397 career assists, and is already the program’s single-season and career record-holder for assists. Last season, Duffey averaged 15.0 ppg, 6.0 apg. 4.0 rpg, and 3.5 spg.

He has been contacted by a few schools already about playing at the collegiate level—including D-III Ursinus College—and has visited D-III St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York.

Even though the future is on his mind, Duffey is still focused on his final season at Lower Moreland. The pressure of a potential college basketball career doesn’t seem to be affecting him.

“I want to win and have a great senior year more so than just focus on getting college offers,” he said.

Baron has been extremely impressed with the poise and determination that Duffey has shown throughout his high school career, and expects a successful culmination of that career this season.

“He is the ultimate captain,” Baron said. “He handles the pressure as well as anybody and I expect great things from him.”

A skilled passer with a high basketball IQ and impressive ball-handling, Duffey recognizes his weaknesses and has worked hard to improve upon them.

“I’m continuously trying to develop a consistent outside jump-shot. I’ve been shooting in the gym a lot, trying to get in a couple hundred shots a few days a week,” he said.

There’s no doubt that with Duffey’s ball-handling skills and the three-point expertise of Millan and Smolda, the Lower Moreland Lions have the offensive talent to compete for a district championship.

While their lack of height remains an issue, this team, which prides itself on physical, fast-paced play, could give opponents a very tough time up and down the court all game long.

The Lions will open their season in the Hatters Tip-Off Tournament on December 4 at 7:00 pm against Upper Moreland.