Despite Early Test, Lower Merion Is Able To Shoot Past Cedar Crest As Aces Roll Into Second Round Of PIAA-6A State Playoffs Behind 30-Point Triumph While Falcons Say Goodbye To Senior Class That ‘Raised The Bar’
Written by: Andy Herr on March 9, 2024
While you never want to diminish or underappreciate runs that get you to the state tournament, there are those certain marches –both informal and formal in the vernacular given the actual month they occur within– that just feel “different”, right? For this year’s version of the Cedar Crest Falcons, this specific likely felt as if it had to fit such a description.
Even still, it’s not as if finding the words “Cedar Crest” inscribed on the PIAA brackets upon their initial release date is exactly a rare occurrence, however. In fact, since current Falcons’ head coach Tommy Smith over control of the program back at the turn of the 2010’s, the Falcons have seemed to make March basketball while maybe not something you should bet the house on perhaps, there are far more foolish bets to place considering this year marked the fourth time in the last ten years in which this Lebanon County sudden powerhouse found its way into the state’s ultimate tournament. Then, when you add in the element of being a public school found in the highest classification level, the Falcons’ various here are somehow even more impressive.
But this year? Well, this run might’ve come with a slight tinge and earmarks of nostalgia if they’re being totally honest up in Cornwall.
Again, while you must recognize and celebrate journeys to states since you never truly know when (or if) they’ll ever come your way again, making it there with a collective group that has taken their shared lumps in coming out the other side of it all by morphing into the best version of themselves is surely something that makes it feel all the more fruitful and special. And for this crew, while they certainly weren’t immune when it came to going through those collective growing pains over the last few years in particular, this is a senior class, and team as a whole, that has certainly done their part when it comes to writing their own story and chapter(s) into the annals –turned scrolls of late– of Cedar Crest boys’ basketball history.
Coming into the year, if the Falcons weren’t the (heavy) proverbial preseason favorite to eventually take the Lancaster-Lebanon League crown, they were certainly on the very, very, very short list of nominees to say the least. Granted, while Cedar Crest wasn’t so immune to being above the law of invincibility that such a senior-laden unit may sometimes seem prone to be, especially considering four games in which the Falcons lost by more than 20 points on average amid the regular season campaign, nets were indeed cut by the end of it come the conclusion of the L-L title game as Cedar Crest was able to lay claim to their fourth league crown during the Tommy Smith era in a win over Warwick, arguably the other preseason odds-on favorite, in the conference’s grand finale in front of yet another packed house at Manheim Township on the night of February 16th.
After that though, the Falcons’ road seemed to mimic many of their earlier themes found true these past few seasons in particular.
Yes, while there was the undeniable highlight that came with another seizure of the conference crown, there was also the stumbling found inside the ensuing District 3-6A tournament field as well.
In that respect, following a second half charge authored by the eventual district champ, Cumberland Valley, on the Eagles’ home floor in the quarterfinal round, Cedar Crest was sent packing into the consolation round needing one more victory over a span of three guaranteed games when it came to securing one of those precious bids into the state field. The problem was, as is so often the scenario when competing amongst the beasts lurking in District 3-6A, even for that of a league champion, simply assuming victory can be an extremely dangerous way to make a living.
First up in that assignment came a trip to Carlisle against a Mid-Penn foe in the Thundering Herd that contained a backcourt in Jaydon and Parker Smith that could arguably walk onto a nearby college campus this very second and find some playing time there to be had. That said, while Cedar Crest jumped out to such a sizable early lead that nearly had them flirting with the idea of inflicting the mercy-rule at times, Carlisle came roaring right back over the latter half of the third and fourth quarters with a furious charge that nearly saw the Herd erase that existing 23-point deficit. In reality though, while Cedar Crest would eventually prevail with a 50-49 win as far as it will forever go down in the history books, it largely felt as if Carlisle simply ran out of time when it came to their feverish assault on overtaking control of the scoreboard.
That said, regardless of how the final result came to be, that narrow one-point win at Gene Evans Gymnasium at Carlisle down in the sometimes quiet and oft-forgot consolation bracket was good enough to send Cedar Crest back into states for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign. And hey, when you consider that many once-young Cedar Crest fans who grew up in their formative years watching the likes of Andrew Eudy, Josh Bucher, Nick Miller, Jimmy Kern, Andrew Eberhart, and of course the one simply referred to as “33”, Evan Horn, now found themselves wearing the very same uniform inside the very same spot as that of their past heroes when it came to this Saturday afternoon and the opening round of the state playoffs, there was ample reason as to why this one indeed felt similar, yet also different in a sense. Then, when you add in that a pair of these present-day Falcons –found in their starting frontline no less– in Aiden Schomp and RJ Young respectively, sons of Cedar Crest assistant coaches which surely saw these two now towering young men grow up incredibly close to the inner workings of what made the Falcons’ meteoric rise as a program tick even if they may have not totally grasped it all at the time, yeah, it’s suddenly easy to see why this may have felt unlike the previous instances in all due respect.
Ironically enough though, their opponent waiting there in the opening round of this year’s PIAA-6A was one that the Falcons were all too familiar with as it turned out.
Simply put, they really need no great introduction.
When talking about the most recognizable high school boys’ basketball brands found not just in the state of Pennsylvania, but perhaps the entire United States of America as a whole, there are few that can rival the likes of the Lower Merion Aces. Of course, when your school’s most famous alum is one that can transcend his profession in such a way that makes him still one of the most talked-about and beloved figures on the entire planet even now four years after his untimely, far-too-soon passing whether the discussion revolve around sports or not, that’s certainly a good jumping off point. That said, it certainly doesn’t hurt your school’s collective aura when said player successfully makes the jump right from the hallways of your school in Ardmore along the Main Line and into the ever-feverish discussion regarding the best basketball players that the human race has ever seen. For that, while the Aces’ record of successes could justifiably stand on their own merits alone outside of this alum’s accomplishments, Lower Merion itself will always be hand-in-glove with Kobe Bryant, arguably the best high school boys’ basketball player the state of Pennsylvania has, or will ever see again.
But when you’re one of the winningest programs inside the entire state, those aren’t the type of numbers that one player alone can simply tally up all by his lonesome. For that, a program that seems to have making the state tournament feel something akin to that of a birthright in some respects given how frequent the Aces find themselves in the field given all of two missing PIAA state tourney appearances over the span of the last 20 years altogether, 65 accrued wins in the state playoffs throughout their storied history notwithstanding, it’s easy to see why Lower Merion has been able to nab two other state titles aside from Bryant’s National Player of the Year senior season, 1996, with a pair of state crowns found in 2006 and 2013 respectively as well in the “modern” era if you will. Closer to home, Lower Merion has now won four District 1 “big school” titles from 1996 onward, with their last coming just this past Saturday at the Liacouras Center on the Temple University campus which can be paired nicely alongside 2021 and 2023 trophies as well.
Needless to say, it takes a strong foreman to oversee such a project over that length of time that has been as successful as Lower Merion boys’ basketball has proven itself to be. And while he too may forever be linked to his star pupil in that of Kobe Bryant, it’s not as if Gregg Downer’s 33rd team, this 2023-24 edition of the Aces, is anything to take lightly and not be properly recognized in terms of the Lower Merion history books considering their eye-popping 27-1 overall record that the Aces brought with them into the aptly-named, “Kobe Bryant Gymnasium” for a Saturday afternoon matinee to help raise the curtain on this year’s state playoffs against Cedar Crest.
Oh yeah, if you’re wondering as to why Cedar Crest and Lower Merion may have been familiar with one another right about now? How about the fact that the Falcons’ last triumph in the state bracket ironically enough came against Lower Merion back in the opening round of the 2015 AAAA tournament in a game held at Lebanon High School that saw the Falcons prevail in a commanding 63-47 count for a victory that in some ways helped cement Cedar Crest as a name across the entirety of the state’s high school basketball scene at-large to become familiar with long-term.
Granted, while the location may have been much, much more in Lower Merion’s favor this time around in the pair’s first meeting since that Saturday afternoon a stone’s throw away from the Cedar Crest campus now nine years ago considering it would be held on the Aces’ actual campus grounds on Saturday afternoon, the overarching aspect of another sure-to-be-remembered gang of Cedar Crest Falcons testing themselves against the goliath known as Lower Merion in a head-to-head matchup with the rest of the state watching on, well, that much at least remained in place just as it had roughly a decade ago now.
Unfortunately though, as far as that Lebanon County contingent was most intimately concerned, the end result of this particular Cedar Crest/Lower Merion affair would be just as different as the location of the game itself.
That said, it certainly wasn’t as if Cedar Crest was outmatched, outclassed, or outanything’d frankly throughout the entirety of the opening frame on Saturday afternoon. In fact, at several points throughout the initial stages, the Falcons could be seen enjoying the fruits of some early labor that translated into the guests having control of the scoreboard early on.
One such example of that notion ringing true could be found in a dead-eye Leo Tirado triple for the Falcons as the 5’9 senior guard made it a 5-3 contest in Cedar Crest’s favor with all of 1:50 having gone by up until that point. From there, it was another of the many Falcons’ seniors, Owen Chernich, the Falcons’ eventual team-high scorer on the day in bucketing an 11-point performance, opportunity to enjoy some spoils of his own as the 6’1 guard came away with a pair of back-to-back takes to the cup which made it an 11-8 Crest advantage.
But as Lower Merion was prone to demonstrate at seemingly every turn throughout Saturday afternoon, Cedar Crest simply could not run away from the Aces even if they had been wearing track shoes instead of basketball sneakers.
Sure enough, following the latest of the Chernich buckets that put the Falcons up by three, an NBA-range trifecta splashed down by way of Lower Merion 5’10 senior floor general, Owen McCabe, on the Aces’ ensuing trip down the floor, promptly knotted things back up at 11-apeice with still half of the first frame yet to unfold. And while the hosts would later find themselves playing with the advantage of a 14-11 cushion following a floater in the lane put home by McCabe –two more en route to what would end in a baker’s dozen in the point production department found on his afternoon– a quick 5-1 Cedar Crest rebuttal that culminated in a Danny Speaks take to the cup would then make it a 16-15 Falcons’ lead with a hair over three minutes left in this see-saw opening frame.
Yet while Cedar Crest would continue to keep the Aces at bay throughout the final minutes and change, yet another Lower Merion floater just before the first quarter horn, this one chipped in by John Mobley, allowed the hosts to saunter into the second period while leading by the slimmest of margins, 17-16.
However, while probably next to impossible to forecast given how both teams appeared to be nothing if not evenly matched throughout the first eight minutes of competition in this 6A open round tilt, that aforementioned Mobley deuce would prove to be the final negotiation and exchange of leads between these two squads for the duration of the afternoon.
In fact, the first Lower Merion salvo that proved detrimental to the Cedar Crest cause would come right from the onset of the second stanza.
There, with just 1:05 having ticked off the second quarter clock, a put-back bucket at the hoop put home by Aces’ senior forward, Adam Herrenkohl, forced Cedar Crest into spending an early timeout to try and stem the tide with the home side being whipped into their first bit of visible excitedness exuded at that point on the day with Lower Merion then possessing the 24-18 advantage. And while Jackson Custer would do his best to try and right the Cedar Crest ship with a 3-ball that cut the margin back down to four at 27-23 roughly a minute later, the Lower Merion snowball just kept coming onward at an alarming pace.
While the margin of separation that would be generated was loud in some instances, such as a tough take through contact finished off by Mobley, one of two Aces’ players who would go on to finish tying in team-high scoring honors with a 17-point day at the office once the dust had settled, the Lower Merion lead was standing relatively quietly at a touchdown difference, 32-25, with a tick inside of four minutes left in the first half.
Speaking of innocently and quietly when trying to describe the manner in which the home team began to push their opposition away, Lower Merion would soon thereafter find their first double digit lead on the afternoon following a pair of tame free throws knocked down at the stripe by 6’5 senior forward, Jayden Robinson, as the Robinson freebies made it a 38-27 ballgame with 70 seconds left in the half by that point. And suddenly, following an Owen McCabe drive to the rack that was largely unimpeded in going coast-to-coast against the Cedar Crest defensive troops, Lower Merion somehow, someway found themselves with a sizable 42-28 halftime advantage behind a second quarter flurry in which more than a few Falcons’ turnovers certainly didn’t hurt the Aces’ overall cause.
Without much in the way of debate, while the relative manner in which the second quarter proceedings had seemed to so abruptly go against the desires of the Falcons, it wasn’t as if the existing 14-point margin was totally insurmountable either. Instead, if Cedar Crest could steadily, bit-by-bit, begin chipping away at the Lower Merion lead, the eventual outcome may still have surely remained an unanswered question as it had been throughout the first quarter in particular. The only problem with that plan was, the Aces would have to abide by said intentions. Simply put, they would do nothing of the sort when it came to aligning with those accommodations.
Sure enough, while the first few minutes of the third quarter would likely prove vital when it came to a potential Cedar Crest rally to try and regain some precious momentum, the deficit only grew larger against them right out of the chute.
Case in point, a John Mobley trifecta which made it an 18-point Lower Merion lead at 49-31 with roughly half of the third quarter already having been wrapped up by that juncture. Shortly thereafter, even while Cedar Crest tried to piece some things together such as RJ Young’s traditional three-point play which made it a 51-36 affair with 3:40 left in the third, an immediate continuation of the slightly better variety, the four-point play, made it a nearly 20-point bulge at 55-36 once Carson Kasmer put the finishing touches on the momentum-tilting play on the Aces’ very next trip down the floor. Speaking of Kasmer in particular, the Aces’ junior guard would fulfill his role as the other member of the Lower Merion tandem that would chip in a 17-point performance to pace their side alongside the aforementioned John Mobley.
And from there on out, while Lower Merion may have quietly be seen exerting their collective will up until that point on the afternoon, they would turn the knob all the way up to max volume over the course of the final few minutes in Saturday’s contest.
If the patrons came for two-handed dunks, Lower Merion’s Jayden Robinson would give those in paid attendance a pair on the afternoon as the senior’s latest such flush would make it a 59-38 Aces’ cushion with 96 seconds remaining in the third and the hosts screaming downhill at this point. Speaking of downhill, following a Mobley three-point play through contact inside of the final 15 seconds of the third frame that only piled onto the existing cushion, somehow, in a game that felt early on as if it would be a surefire knockdown, drag out scrap up until the end if the first eight minutes were to serve as any sort of precursor, Lower Merion would roll into the final quarter being just three points shy of triggering the mercy-rule into effect given their sizable 67-40 lead after the first three periods.
Unfortunately, that running clock for the remainder of the game would indeed be berthed into existence once inside the fourth.
Even still, Cedar Crest, as they always demonstrate in what is a non-negotiable intangible found inside their program when it comes to a grittiness and unwillingness to back down and shy away from a challenge, that too was on display even if the eventual outcome here was nothing more than a formality.
As far this example was concerned, one of the premier players slated to return into the L-L League fold come next season, RJ Young, came away with a nice bucket inside as the fast-rising 6’7 Cedar Crest junior big man would finish his day and his season with a seven-point effort while having to battle inside against the Aces’ rangy forwards.
But if you were wondering for when that 30-point threshold was eventually reached, it would come following a pair of back-to-back triples sunk by Lower Merion’s Carson Kasmer as the Aces’ 5’10 junior sniper came away with half of his four triples splashed home on the afternoon which made it a 79-49 contest with time now winding down even more rapidly.
In terms of their future beyond this day, Cedar Crest got a bit of a glimpse –albeit perhaps in a small sample size — as to what they have coming back into the fold come next winter.
For that, a nice take to the tin by 6’0 junior spark plug, Danny Speaks, preceded a pair of equally tough takes to the hole put home by another junior who figures to be a key element in the Falcons’ concoction come next season, Dylan Groff, as the 5’11 junior tallied two straight buckets down the homeward stretch to give Cedar Crest a bit of a boost inside the waning stages.
However, while figuring out who and who can contribute exactly what into the overall mix will be a topic of conversation down the line here come the latter stages of spring and into the summer months inside Cedar Crest boys’ basketball camp, the far more important pressing and important matter of the day was that it signified the end of the line here in Ardmore for a host of Falcons who had given their all to the program following this bitter and tough 85-55 loss at the hands of Lower Merion inside Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon in the opening round of the state playoffs.
There, as one may have expected given that this is the hardest day found on any team’s calendar over the course of the entire season, the Falcons took their time back inside the visiting locker room considering this would be the last time they would all be assembled inside four walls while donning their blue “Cedar Crest” script jerseys. Hard to fathom considering how it felt as if this was a group that had –and maybe would—play for the remainder of time given how they were such mainstays in the starting lineup and on the bench collectively over the last few years. Then, once he did emerge after addressing his team this one final time, it was obvious that Cedar Crest head coach Tommy Smith had just emptied the tank emotionally so to speak. And who could possibly blame him?
“Honestly, as crazy as it sounds, and I don’t know what (Lower Merion) shot percentagewise, but they just shot it so well,” Smith said after collecting himself when asked as to how this one had seemed to veer off course and elude the Falcons’ grasp as sudden as it did following an impressive first quarter authored by his bunch. “We were throwing punches. We executed our gameplan and we did everything we wanted to do,” he added. “The second quarter got away from us, and we got into foul trouble as well, so we were running different guys in and out. But the biggest difference in that game was that they shot the ball really well in the second quarter, stretched it out to 14 at halftime, and we just couldn’t close the gap to where it really got away from us.”
Again though, taking aside the fact that a loss in the state playoffs means the end of your campaign regardless, it’s quantifiably even harder to stomach when it signifies the finality of a special group of seniors that have poured so much of themselves into your vision. Smith certainly didn’t need any additional reminders when it came to that rest assured.
“I think we ended, not this game necessarily, but the way we ended this season as a whole was exactly what we expected when they were sophomores and taking their lumps,” the four-time Lancaster-Lebanon League champion head coach –this team having given him his fourth last month– said when trying to answer the impossible question in try quantify and sum everything up not even 20 minutes after their memorable run had just abruptly ended. “Last year, just taking those steps. We weren’t ready yet,” he candidly admitted. “But this year, everything we did, how we brought them up in preparing for this year, they finished by being who we thought they were. It wasn’t all great. There were definitely some hiccups. But at the end of the day, I think they developed into exactly who we thought they were when we first saw them as 7th graders, 8th graders, freshmen, and so on.”
“The standard is the standard,” Smith stated with his solum troops starting to now shuffle their way out of the locker room door quietly for the hour and a half bus ride home. “They were the standard. Again, for the program and what it is, they met the bar that’s been set and maybe even raised it a bit,” he was equally quick to mention.
“Groups like this only come around every now and again. Not often,” the architect of this Cedar Crest decade-plus accession project said in closing. “You just never know. It might be another three, four, five years maybe until another great group like this comes through again. But yeah, I’m just thankful that I had a small part in their journey.”
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