Chester vs Lower Merion by the numbers

Chester defense make the difference

I didn’t see the game but I occasionally followed it on the Delcotimes.com chat. 

If all I had was a stat sheet to go by, here’s what I would conclude in Chester’s 59-33 victory over Lower Merion in the state finals game. 

Chester shot 24 for 62. That means they missed 38 shots. Ouch! Only one player scored in double figures with 13. 10 for 24 means they missed 14 foul shots, 4 more than they made. They missed 6 of 7 3-point shots. They didn’t even score 60 points.

Those are not good numbers, but when compared to Lower Merion’s numbers, it looks like this may have been a very ugly game.

LM only got off 37 shots and made a woeful 11. They missed just 5 foul shots, but they only took 14. They missed 8 of 10 3-point shots. They scored a respectable half time total of 33 for the entire game. Yikes. 

So, us non game watchers have to dig deeper in the stats sheet for other reasons why the game was so loop sided. Rebounds and steals usually tells the story. 

Chester had its usual domination on the boards with a 47-29 advantage. Steals weren’t listed on the Delcotimes stat sheet. 

When you combine the low number of shots Lower Merion attempted, with Chester’s rebound advantage combined with their assumed advantage in steals, it’s easy to see that the Chester defense ruled again.

My prediction of a 58-45 game wasn’t too bad on the Chester side, but Lower Merion really stunk up the Jordan Center with their lowly 33 points. That’s straight up embarrassing. 

Ugly games have pretty winners. 

Congrats Chester. See you at the Parade.