Harriton Girls Fight Back But Lose On Lower Merion's Court

Before it seemed the team could inhale Tuesday night, they were staring up at a 14-1 deficit to their  hosts.

It looked bad, really bad. Rams’ coach Carla Coleman had seen enough, and addressed her team about all the things she mentioned before the game: how she wanted Batmans and no Robins, how she wanted someone to step up and take command.

It didn’t finish the way and Coleman envisioned. But the Rams made what appeared to be a blowout into a highly competitive game, losing 44-34. The loss dropped the Rams to 4-10 overall and 3-5 in the Central League.

But Coleman saw some growth in the way her team battled back from the early big deficit to draw within 32-28 late in the third quarter.

“This game is a character-building game, and we did do some things very well,” Coleman said. “There were some things we didn’t do well, but overall, I like the way the girls battled back. I think we all have a better understanding of what we need to become a better team and what we have to do to make the next leap.”

Harriton was playing in front of a huge crowd, much larger than what they were used to playing before. That had some effect on them at the outset.

“I was definitely nervous. We don’t play in front of huge crowds like this,” Rams’ sophomore guard Sabrina Tabasso said. “But we had a problem starting, we always seem to have slow starts. Our defense lacks in the beginning, and then we adjust.”

Katie Melvin, another stellar Harriton sophomore, sees some good signs ahead.

“I think, in the beginning, we all realized it was getting worse, and we came together,” Melvin said. “That was the difference. We didn’t win, but we came together and started to run our stuff. I’ll admit, I really did want to beat Lower Merion, but we realize we could play better.”