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Sports

Lady Aces Get Ready For Red Lion, Tuesday's Playoff Opponent

Lower Merion's next state playoff opponent has lost just once this year.

There is a certain freedom in knowing that you’re not expected to win. That’s the kind of situation the Lower Merion girls’ basketball team will have tomorrow night, when the Lady Aces play District 3 champion Red Lion in the second round of the PIAA Class AAAA state playoffs at Coatesville High School at 8 p.m.

Lower Merion is coming off a nice 38-24 victory over Liberty in the opening round of the playoffs, while Red Lion arrives to this round 36-33 winners over Downingtown West, behind 14 points from 5-foot-8 senior guard Gisselle Truitt, Red Lion’s top player.

Lower Merion star point guard Sheba Hall (bound for Manhattan on a basketball scholarship) played one of her best games this season against Liberty, scoring a team-high 14 points and picking up a team-high eight steals. The Lady Aces will have to do it without 6-foot-3 sophomore center Carmen Torres, who severely injured her ankle in the fourth quarter of the Liberty victory.

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“This will be a challenge, we know Red Lion is the defending District 3 champions and they press throughout a game and they play off their pressure,” Aces’ coach Lauren Pellicane said. “Truitt is very good, and Red Lion tries to make you try to play ugly. I saw them play last year and saw them a couple of times this year. We’ll need to handle their pressure and we’ll have to take care of the ball. It was great to see Sheba Hall coming off one of her better games of the season, and Jessie Porter played very well. But we’ll have to adjust without Carmen. She’ll probably be out the rest of the season.”

Pellicane did note the Lady Aces have adjusted well before. They’ve missed Hall, who suffers from constant compartmental syndrome, and missed senior leader Carli Swartz for two weeks earlier this season recovering from a concussion.

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Red Lion is a near-pristine 27-1, while the Aces are 23-5. Pellicane feels her team is ready for this challenge. Lower Merion leading scorer Lila Jones was held scoreless against Liberty, strapped by foul trouble.

“We’ve been in this situation before,” Pellicane said. “We’ll have to adjust without Carmen. But we have played without Sheba and without Carli for times this year, and other people will need to step up, and they have. We need to attack offensively, and get Lila back into the flow offensively. We also need to have her on the court, let the game come to her and not to try to do too much. We’re in a nice situation. The pressure is all on Red Lion. We didn’t have much playoff experience coming into the districts, but we shouldn’t feel any pressure at this point.”

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