Upper Dublin & Neshaminy were winners in the opening round of the District One 6A Tournament on Saturday. Photos provided courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p574400572)
#1-9 UPPER DUBLIN 54, #1-24 PENNSBURY 24
The Flying Cardinals raced out of the gate to an early lead and never looked back on their way to the opening round win.
“You have to survive this round, you have to find a way,” coach Morgan Funsten said. “The CB West score last night got our attention (a 59-56 loss to Boyertown) in terms of you don’t just show up and expect the other team to roll over just because you’re the better seed.”
The Cardinals’ coach pointed to senior starters Nicole Kaiser and Maggie Weglos for setting the tone.”
“They know what it takes to prepare for playoff games, and I thought they took such a great lead at practice all week in terms of getting the other players in the program in the right mindset and kind of taught them with a combination of communicating verbally and just leading by example of how you prepare for a playoff game,” Funsten said. “Regardless of if you think you’re better than the other team or if you think the other team is better than you, you prepare for a playoff game a certain way. A combination of watching tape and working on our weaknesses and trusting the game plan and everything like that – Nicole and Maggie did such a great job of modeling what I want out of all of my players.
“Because they have been a part of this program for four years and have had the success we’ve had, I thought it was so important not just for this year but for years to come, showing all the players in the program what it takes.”
The Cardinals raced out of the gate to a 17-6 lead after one quarter behind six points from Kaiser and nine from freshman Dayna Balasa. They put the game out of reach with an 18-0 second quarter that included five points from Sarah Eskew.
“A couple of things didn’t go our way early, and then they shot 10-for-11 from inside the 3-point line, and many of them were jumpers,” Pennsbury coach Frank Sciolla said. “They were 10-for-12 from the foul line. They’re good. They’re a team that executes and runs a lot of good stuff.
“We, on the other hand, were 0-for-11 from the 3-point line in the first half, we were 2-for-6 from the foul line and 2-for-18 overall. What we were happy about is that we were getting open looks, and that’s good. The down side is we’re not at the point where we can make them.”
The two teams exchanged baskets in the second half.
“We were down big, we went into halftime – I’ll be honest, I was not kumbaya and everything is great,” Sciolla said. “I went in there and said, ‘Why are we not getting the ball in the middle and looking opposite? Why are we not doing the things we practiced?’ To the kids’ ultimate credit, from the first possession on in the second half, they did that. Luckily for us, Upper Dublin did not back off. They came out, they were still pressuring, they were still playing really hard, and we were able to handle that and score, but Upper Dublin is a really good team. They have a chance to make a state run.”
Kaiser led the Cardinals with 14 points and five rebounds. Balasa added 12 points, and Meg Barbera added nine points and three steals. Jackie Vargas contributed eight points and seven rebounds.
Senior Sydney Buell led the Falcons with nine points, and sophomore Cami Wiegand added eight.
“The first thing – obviously, you’re proud of them, and you feel they have maxed out their ability,” said Sciolla, who led the Falcons to their first district berth since 2013 in his second year at the helm. “Very few times do you ever get to the finish line and say that because many years you would have hoped to have gone further or you have some question about what you did as a coach or you wished you had gotten more out of a certain kid.
“In this case, they gave every possible thing they have, and it was evident today when we went there because Upper Dublin is a really good team, and Upper Dublin has been a really good program for over a decade, and they’re really well coached. In that combination, you have a challenge.”
Sciolla recalled looking out on the court in the third quarter and seeing three freshmen, a sophomore and a senior.
“We started laughing, we literally on the bench just started laughing,” the Falcons’ coach said. “We were on the court at a great program, and here we are – we’re in the playoffs.
“It felt good, and we were happy that (senior) Syd Buell continued to compete. It’s just great that we were able to take this step. Now that we have gone from the bottom and punched our way to the middle – it’s important that we understand how far the gap is to the top.
“The first thing I said after the game after saying I’m proud is that we would be best (served) to watch the tape of this game and look at Upper Dublin and see where we want to go. In fairness, Upper Dublin’s youth basketball program is pumping out kids every single year. We have that going in Pennsbury for three years now. Everybody keeps talking about what’s coming next year and the year after, but there are a lot of good young girls playing in this area. I think it’s really important that our current girls continue to work and get better. Upper Dublin – the template was there in terms of how hard they played, how much talent they have, which was impressive, and how well they’re coached.”
Pennsbury (6-6 SOL) closed out its season with an 11-12 record.
Upper Dublin (19-4, 12-2 SOL) will travel to Council Rock North for a second round game on Wednesday.
“I have seen CR North, and in my opinion, they are as complete of a team as there is in the district maybe outside Souderton with the way they’re playing right now,” Funsten said. “I do not think they are the eighth best team in the district – I think they’re better than that, but it doesn’t matter. We’re going to have to come across good teams if we want make the run that we want to make.
“With extra lives, let’s play the best. If we want to make a run, we will see the best. We know what’s ahead of us, but we’re excited. We’re going to prepare like crazy for CR North. They have five girls that are as close to complete players as possible. They have good size, they have speed, they have a point guard, they have a big girl, and they have shooters. They have everything. I know the girls are excited about playing.
“It would be nice to play at home. We feel like we got an advantage over CR North today because we got to play. Now they have the advantage because they get to play us at home. I don’t know which advantage is better. I know that our girls were extremely excited about playing today in front of our home crowd and playing a game in general. We had a great week leading up to this, and we’re hoping the momentum of our practices this week and our performance especially in the first half today will carry over to practice the next few days and CR North on Wednesday.”
Pennsbury 6-0-8-10 24
Upper Dublin 17-18-8-11 54
Pennsbury (24) – Abbi Nassivera 0 1-2 1; Mary Miller 2 0-0 4; Celia Johnson 0 0-1 0; Lily Hochausler 1 0-0 2; Sydney Buell 3 2-4 9; Cami Wiegand 3 1-2 8; TOTALS 9 4-9 24.
Upper Dublin (54) – Meg Barbera 4 0-1 9; Nicole Kaiser 5 4-6 14; Sarah Eskew 2 0-0 5; Kara Grebe 1 0-0 3; Maggie Weglos 1 0-0 2; Dayna Balasa 2 6-6 12; Lindsey Schreiber 0 1-2 1; Jackie Vargas 4 0-2 8; TOTALS 19 11-17 54.
3-point goals: Pennsbury Sydney Buell, Cami Wiegand; UD – Dayna Balasa 2, Kara Grebe, Sarah Eskew, Meg Barbera.
#1-10 NESHAMINY 59, #1-23 CHELTENHAM 19
The Redskins took care of business early in Saturday’s opening round game. Behind seven points from both Brooke Mullin and Kelli Kowalick and six from both Emily Tantala an Olivia Scotti, the Redskins led 31-7 after one quarter and took a 49-16 lead into halftime on their way to the no-doubt-about-it win.
“We always start the season with the goal to compete to win our league,” coach Joe Lally said. “Champion, co-champion, tri-champion – we’ll take it.
“We really want to make a run in districts and get into states. We respect every opponent and take every opponent seriously, and they came ready to play.”
Scotti led all scorers with 14 points while Allison Harvey had 12 on four 3-pointers. Kowalick added 11 points and Mullin had 10. Meghan Ansel and Tantala both had six.
“Kelli Kowalick and Olivia Scotti had nice games for us – two sophomores that really stepped up,” Lally said.
The Redskins were without sophomore point guard Kristin Curley (illness).
“She’s a nice point guard – she can distribute, take care of the ball,” Lally said. “She’s feisty, she can see the floor, she can break a press, and she’s unselfish. She’s really valuable to us, so we spent the last several days worrying about her being sick.
“Emily Tantala ran things and kept things in order. She did a great job.”
Savannah Roberts led the Lady Panthers with nine points on three 3-pointers. Courtney Murray added seven.
Neshaminy (17-5, 10-2 SOL) will travel to seventh-seeded Perkiomen Valley for a second round game on Wednesday. Cheltenham (6-8 SOL) closed out its season with a 12-11 record.
Cheltenham 7-9-2-1 19
Neshaminy 31-18-6-4 59
Cheltenham (19) – Savannah Roberts 3 0-0 9; Courtney Murray 1 5-10 7; Madison Rorer 0 1-2 1; Katie Denyer 0 0-2 0; Kelia Holmes 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 5 6-14 19.
Neshaminy (59) – Brooke Mullin 3 3-5 10; Allison Harvey 4 0-0 12; Olivia Scotti 6 2-5 14; Kelli Kowalick 4 3-4 11; Meghan Ansel 2 2-4 6; Emily Tantala 2 2-2 6; TOTALS 21 12-17 59.
3-point goals: Cheltenham – Savannah Roberts 3; Neshaminy – Allison Harvey 4, Brooke Mullin.
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