Tigers Put Up a Fight Against Merion Mercy in District Playoffs

Denise McKeown wasn’t ready to let go just yet. Neither was Maiya Brown or Devon Miller. In fact, none of the seniors were about to make this their last high school basketball game.

And for four quarters it showed. The Tigers scratched, and they fought, but in the end Merion Mercy Academy’s outside shooting in its little bandbox gym was too much to overcome in a 54-33 loss for the opening round of the District 1 Class AAA playoffs Tuesday night.

The defeat ended the season for Marple Newtown, the No. 9 seed, which concluded its season at 9-14 overall, while No. 8 seed Merion Mercy will advance to the second round, improving to 8-14.

The Tigers had a few things going against them, playing a private school team which can draw players from a much wider radius than Marple Newtown, and playing on a short court before a boisterous crowd.

However that didn’t stop McKeown, a Division-I field hockey recruit, from pouring in a team-high 13 points, followed by 5-foot-10-inch junior Melissa Levy’s eight points and Brown’s six. McKeown played with a sustained intensity throughout the game, even as it began to unravel for the Tigers.

“Denise has been a leader for this whole year, offensively, defensively, she’s a class act and no one works harder or plays harder than her,” Tigers’ coach Mike Colgan said.

“This was tough. One of our goals this year was to make the playoffs and we did," continued Colgan. "What I was most proud about, however, was how these girls fought and kept fighting, even when the game was out of hand. I told the girls afterward how proud I was of their effort, especially the seniors. We had our junior varsity with us on the bench, and the seniors really showed an example to the very end.”

It was particularly biting, however, to McKeown and Brown. They were both fighting away tears after Colgan held his final team meeting.

“This was sad, it was tough because I really didn’t think Merion Mercy was that special,” McKeown said. “I think we got caught a little ahead to Friday night.”

Brown agreed, saying, “I think we lost our focus looking ahead. We should have been focusing on today rather than thinking about playing on Friday.”

Marple Newtown never led. The Tigers were down 12-7 after one quarter and 21-15 at the half. In the third quarter, it started to get out of control as Merion Mercy started hitting from the floor.

“We rushed things on offense,” Levy said. “The shooting caused us problems. This is a small court and they know where to shoot on this court. But I really don’t think they were that good. We were rushing everything and got ourselves into some problems. We all played aggressively.”

Especially McKeown, who wasn’t about to surrender that easily.

“It’s why I kept fighting,” said McKeown, who is considering playing field hockey at Delaware, Villanova or St. Joseph’s universities in the fall. “Our shots weren’t dropping, so I had to give them a fight.”