Lower Merion Beats Roman Catholic, 67-49, Reaches State Quarterfinals

These two teams met before—close to four months ago. They played with the intensity of a March playoff game and you had the impression Lower Merion and Roman Catholic weren’t done with each other.

They weren’t.

Yohanny Dalembert had a career game with 17 points and 10 rebounds and BJ Johnson added 15 points as avenged its earlier loss to Roman Catholic with an emphatic 67-49 victory in the second round of the PIAA state playoffs Wednesday night at Norristown Area High School.

Lower Merion advances to play Easton in the third round on Saturday while the loss ended Roman Catholic’s season.

Dalembert, a 6-foot-7-inch junior, became electric with eight points in the third quarter cleaving a tight game into the beginnings of a blowout.

“Yohanny is a great athlete who hasn’t been playing basketball that long and we’ve been waiting for a game like this from him,” Lower Merion coach Gregg Downer said. “We got that tonight from Yohanny. We used him a little more tonight because Darryl [Reynolds] was in a little foul trouble. We also wanted to play a little bigger tonight and Yohanny got some minutes and produced for us. He’s a big, strong kid who is improving on a daily basis.”

There were 10 lead changes, but when JaQuan Johnson's layup with 3:26 left in the third quarter gave the Aces a 37-36 lead that they kept. Dalembert added four more points before the end of the quarter that put more distance between Lower Merion and Roman Catholic.

A mini 7-2 run to start the fourth quarter put some further difference between the Aces and Roman Catholic. That gave Lower Merion a 50-40 cushion with 6:36 left to play.

Lower Merion took a 29-27 lead into halftime. After a great start, where the Aces got out to a 4-0 lead, the game took a back-and-forth sway. Roman’s Britton Lee canned a three-point shot and was fouled, for a four-point play, and the teams were locked at 4-4.

It was a precursor of things to come. There were six lead changes in the first half, with the biggest lead 16-10 early in the third quarter.

Roman’s gifted sophomore Shep Garner exploded in the second quarter for nine of his half-high 11 points. A Garner basket and Garner trey put Roman up twice. But Roman had a tough time contending with Lower Merion’s superior size. Garner scored just two points in the second half, as the Aces went into a triangle-and-two defense on him.

Dalembert and 6-7 senior Darryl Reynolds caused all kinds of problems for the Cahillites. Dalembert had seven at the half for the Aces. Dalembert finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots.