“Every year we have at least six to eight seniors that graduate so it’s that next man up mentality,” Parrish said. “So I got to do what I got to do.”
Parrish has definitely taken the idea of “next man up” to heart as he displayed his leadership and control as Lower Merion got a crucial 60-52 win over Upper Darby on Tuesday night.
The Aces have had a slow start to their season.
They kicked off with a loss to the formidable Coatesville, handled Downingtown West, but then lost two conference games back to back against Garnet Valley and Conestoga, putting them at 1-3. Even with wins over Ridley and Haverford, they still found themselves at the lower half of the Central League table entering play Tuesday, an unusual position for a Gregg Downer-coached squad.
The victory over the Royals seemed to be a shift in the right direction as the Aces hope to start climbing back up.
“It felt great, it was a big win and we needed it,” Parrish said. “We started off the season really rough, 1-3, which is not really good, it’s terrible and wasn’t expected. We turned it around after tough practices with our coaches. We turned it around and now we are above .500, 4-3, so I feel great, we feel great as a team.”
Lower Merion (4-3 overall, 3-2 Central League) was in control just about the entire game, never losing the lead after the first three minutes. Even when Upper Darby made runs, the Aces never lost composure, a lot of that having to do with Parrish’s ball management when running the point.
Parrish claims that he has been playing basketball since he was born but he recognizes his grandmother as the person who first gave him the ball. Ironically, she was never a fan of sports but she realized Parrish had a future in them and was going to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Keith Parrish, a Bensalem High School hall of famer and former defensive back at Kutztown.
“No, she was not a fan,” said Parrish, explaining his grandmother’s role in his start of basketball. “She was a church lady, she was always knitting. So, she wasn’t a sports lady at all but she knew I was going to be into sports so she gave me the ball and it worked out.”
He is taking on this leadership role with pride. Being a leader in his sports is something that has been important to him his whole life, liking the responsibility and challenge that comes with it.
“It’s been a whole life thing,” Parrish said. “I’ve always been a captain of the team. Whatever sport I played, whether it was baseball, football, basketball, I was always the captain. I was always the loud guy. I have to keep my team straight but also keep myself straight, so it’s hard but it’s the point of being a leader.”
Putting up 10 points against the Royals, he was more focused on being a facilitator, another new role he has taken on. His goal was to set up his shooters and he did just that, with sophomore Israel Ingraham hitting four three-pointers beyond the arc and junior Will Yard hitting three.
“He’s turning into more of a distributor and less concerned about the points,” Downer said. “He’s working hard to take care of the basketball and trying to make all the correct decisions. Really in many ways the team is his. He’s got the ball in his hands quite a bit and he’s working hard.”
Parrish scored a critical layup with 2:11 left in the fourth quarter which put Lower Merion up five in the tight game. He waited for the right moment to drive and secure the two points which from there with his keen ball control they were able to eat time off the clock and force Upper Darby to start fouling, stretching out their lead.
“Towards the end of the games we need to close it out, there is no excuse,” Parrish said. “We can’t have bad mistakes, bad turnovers, bad shots, bad looks. But, we pulled together the last two minutes of the game and got the win.”
The focus currently for Lower Merion is to get fully healthy. Recently their starting sophomore, Charlie Kocudak, went down with a season-ending torn ACL and starting forward Nick Dragut has been out hurt all season so far. They are hoping to get at least Dragut back by February, in time for the postseason.
With a relatively new squad this season, they aim to continue to grow and take steps forward, not looking to take any more steps back instead looking to shake off the rocky start and get ready to play the best basketball possible by February.
After Tuesday’s results, Lower Merion sits tied with Conestoga and Upper Darby for fourth in the 12-team league, a game behind Springfield (Delco.) and one ahead of Harriton, Marple Newtown and Strath Haven. They’ll have a chance to continue pushing towards the top in January, but it’ll be the stretch against Springfield (Jan. 21), Garnet Valley (Jan. 22) and Conestoga (Jan. 27) that’ll go a long way towards determining not just if they make the Central League playoffs but as what seed.
“Just one game at a time and putting in good work, putting in good practices,” Downer said. “We have a pretty youthful bunch so we just want to peck away and hopefully play our best basketball in February.”
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By Quarter
Lower Merion: 18 | 14 | 13 | 15
Upper Darby: 10 | 19 | 9 | 14
Scoring
Lower Merion: Israel Ingram 15, William Yard 11, Kyle Parrish 10, Finn Pulsifer 10, Bereket Darsenie 5, Davion Smith 5, Colin Beck 2, Arjay Miller 1, Darius Mitchell 1
Upper Darby: Marlon Boreland 21, Tahli Murray 13, Jude Ennis 7, Artemus Sirleaf 4, Sileeh Armstrong 3, Musa Kamara 2, Tawhir Riley 2