The Lady Aces Survive A First-Round Scare

The expression on Lauren Pellicane’s face spelled it out. The  girls’ basketball coach had a clenched jaw, taut face, and walked rapidly off the court—and this came after Pellicane just watched her Lady Aces dispose of Great Valley, 33-29, in the first round of the PIAA District 1 Class AAAA playoffs Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Aces, the No. 5 seed, improved to an impressive 20-3 overall and will now advance to the second round of the tournament against Downingtown West Wednesday night at Lower Merion, at 7 p.m.

But Pellicane, and her team for that matter, know they can ill afford to play like they did against Great Valley, the tournament’s No. 28 seed—and a team that gave the Lady Aces more of a challenge than they expected, counting to easily roll over them.

It didn’t exactly work out that way.

Lila Jones led the Lady Aces with a team-high 15 points and Sheba Hall added six. Rosie Stahler played exceptional defense, especially in the game’s waning moments when the final result was still in question.

“We didn’t win the right way and no, I’m not pleased when my team doesn’t perform the way it’s capable of playing,” Pellicane said. “I let them know after the game how I felt. What bothered me was I thought we took ourselves out of the game at times. We’re better than that. We have to be hungry in every game of this tournament. I have to credit to Great Valley, they played well defensively, taking us out of some things, but we missed a lot of easy shots, shots we normally make.”

It was a harsh game offensively. It was 19-15 midway into the third quarter, when the Lady Aces poured it on, getting out to a 26-16 lead—made possible by Hall, Jones and Stahler’s inside play. Lower Merion built a 31-26 lead entering the fourth quarter. But just as easily as the Lady Aces took off, they came crashing back quickly.

Lower Merion scored two points in the fourth quarter—the byproduct of eight turnovers. Then in swooped Hall to make the play of the game, when she stole the ball and fed Jones for a layup, giving the Lady Aces a 33-27 lead with 1:25 left to play.

Great Valley scored another basket—and the Lady Aces hung on, though making this game much harder than it should have been.

“I don’t know where we were, but we weren’t here mentally, I don’t know why, we weren’t ready,” admitted Jones. “We handled our business and got the win, but Coach Pellicane told us this wasn’t a good win. We are better than this.”

Said Hall: “Coach Pellicane should be angry at us, we should be a little angry at ourselves. We didn’t take this game as seriously as we should have. We picked it up when we had to, but once we get a lead, we let up. I think we play down to opponents. I don’t why, but we do. That’s been a problem this year, something we have to solve.”

The Lady Aces have some time and another opportunity to smooth out the wrinkles. Beating Downingtown West would give Lower Merion an automatic berth in the PIAA Class AAAA state playoffs, but Pellicane is counting on this to be the last postseason clunker she sees.

“I think we learned something,” Stahler said. “I guess we came in thinking we’d win just by showing up. I think we know we can’t overlook anyone, especially from now on.”