Upper Dublin Shocks Cardinal O'Hara in the First Round of States
By: Kate Harman
“Go get the speaker,” head coach Morgan Funsten excitedly said Friday night, as he was standing outside the locker room of the Upper Dublin girls’ basketball team.
His Cardinals had just put on quite the show inside the Archbishop Carroll gymnasium, using a combination of their trademark gritty defense and timely three-pointers to upset Cardinal O’Hara in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A state tournament, 42-35, in two overtimes.
The win elicited exhilaration – and an on-court celebration – for U.D., as the Cardinals fell in the same game to the Lions just last season.
But Funsten knew what the moment was missing.
“Turbulence” by Steve Aoki and Laidback Luke.
Why “Turbulence?”
It started back when the team played Suburban One League American Conference rival, Plymouth Whitemarsh, for the first time this past January.
The group wanted to get pumped up. They tried one song but the beat wasn’t what they wanted.
That’s when senior Maggie Weglos thought of English class and her teacher that put “Turbulence” on.
The song stuck.
“Every game we put it on right before we go into the gym,” Weglos, who led her team with 13 points said. “It’s our song.”
Their song that until Friday, had only been played before games, not after.
“This is states,” Weglos said, smiling. “Anything goes.”
The Cardinals (22-5) trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half but got the margin to just one by the end of the third quarter thanks to a defensive crackdown and opportune buckets. Two Weglos free throws with just 15 seconds remaining looked to seal the deal for U.D. but Drexel recruit Maura Hendrixson went 3-of-3 from the line to send the game into overtime for the Lions (21-5).
After neither team was able to capitalize on the first four minutes of extra time, the Cardinals seized the moment.
First, Jackie Vargas made a nice move down low and then, when O’Hara responded, freshman Jess Polin proceeded to score the next six points, giving U.D. its largest lead of the game.
The biggest of which, came in the form of a three-pointer with less than two minutes remaining in the second overtime.
“I was kind of just like, please go in, please go in,” Polin, who scored 12 for the Cardinals, said. “It felt really good when it finally dropped.”
Last year, Polin was in the stands as an eighth grader at Jefferson University when the Lions handed the U.D. a 27-point loss to end the season.
“It’s hard,” Polin said. “On the bleachers you can’t do anything.”
She wasn’t on the bleachers this season.
And so, she made sure she did something about it.
@Ka_Harman
KateRHarman@gmail.comUpper Dublin 3 9 10 9 0 11 – 42
Cardinal O’Hara 11 8 4 8 0 4 – 35
UD: Maggie Weglos 13, Jess Polin 12, Jackie Vargas 7, Nciole Kaiser 7, Dayna Balasa 3
CO: Kenzie Gardler 15, Maura Hendrixson 13, Stephanie Huesby 4, Molly Paolino 3
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