Sports
Harriton Plays Well In Tough Loss To Powerful Lower Merion
The Rams got within nine midway through the third quarter.
Jesse Rappaport knew what was coming. The coach knew his team had to play a near-flawless game if they had any chance of beating state powerhouse Lower Merion, one of the top five teams in the state.
Rappaport and the Rams didn’t visit Lower Merion Tuesday night looking for a moral victory. They were looking to knock off one of the big boys, and for a time there, the Rams stayed within striking distance of the Aces.
But couldn’t overcome the heavy Lower Merion arsenal, falling 76-52, despite 13 points from Harriton’s Itay Levy, 12 from Tas Dixon and 10 from Matt Sherman.
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Harriton fell to 7-5 overall and 5-3 in the Central League, with another big game coming up against Marple Newtown on Friday night.
Rappaport, however, has a great gauge for the rest of the season after playing in a packed Bryant Gym before a passionate crowd.
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“We battled—that’s what I liked, we battled,” Rappaport said. “I found out there are things we could do better. Hey, Lower Merion is an extremely, extremely talented team. And there were a lot of emotional issues swirling around this game. I’ll admit we came into this with little margin for error. We had to play almost perfect to beat them. The mistake we made was falling in their trap. They wanted a fast-paced game and we had to slow it down. We preached patience, but Lower Merion ran, and we took the bait.”
The Rams never led, but were within 19-10 in the first half and down 42-33 midway into the third quarter.
“We went into this game thinking we wanted to win, it wasn’t about staying close,” said Sherman, who played against his brother, Corey, a Lower Merion freshman guard for a minute in the fourth quarter. “There were a few things we could have done better, and controlling the tempo of the game was one of them.”
Levy, at 6-foot-4, is the tallest Rams’ starter. Lower Merion had a few players over 6-foot-7.
“We try to play bigger than what we are,” Levy said. “Now we need to look ahead and focus on Marple Newtown coming up.”
