Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ basketball teams in action in Wednesday’s District 1 Tournament. Upper Moreland/ Marple Newtown photos provided courtesy of Greg Lindsay Upper Dublin/Chichester photos courtesy of Darry Rule of J&D Photography. Check back for galleries of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports’ BOYS’ BASKETBALL GALLERIES.
District 1 5A
#4 UPPER MORELAND 67, #5 MARPLE NEWTOWN 49
The Golden Bears had plenty of reasons to celebrate Wednesday night.
Not only did their win over the Tigers punch their ticket to the state tournament, but senior Colson Campbell put his name in the record books – the first player to reach the 1,000-point milestone since 1995 when Keith Kochersperger did it.
“He’s the first player I’ve coached to achieve that,” UM coach Dan Heiland said. “It’s an incredible accomplishment and milestone for any high school player to achieve 1,000 points.
“It couldn’t happen to a better kid. He does everything you ask him to do and more. He plays the game the right way. I was happy he was able to do it tonight in a playoff win in a great atmosphere in front of our home fans and our community. It’s just a special moment not only for the program and him but that his mom and dad, brother and his family who was at the game could all enjoy it.
“It’s just a special moment he’ll always be able to remember and look back on. His name will hang on the banner forever. It’s an incredible milestone. I’m super happy for him, super proud of him. It couldn’t have happened to a better kid.”
Campbell needed 13 points to reach the milestone – he scored 14, but his main concern on this night was not scoring points.
“I was really focused on trying to win the game because it’s the playoffs, but after I got it, it was kind of a relief,” Campbell said. “I know it’s a hard goal to achieve. I’m just grateful that my teammates were able to help me along the way. All my coaches – they helped me achieve that challenging goal.
“My freshman year when I was playing varsity, I knew I was going to play all four years, and I knew I had a chance to do it. It was always a personal goal of mine. To be able to achieve it was very special to me.”
As for the game, the Golden Bears opened up a 20-12 lead after one quarter and took a 32-25 advantage into halftime. It was a 46-38 game heading into the fourth quarter when they outscored the Tigers 21-11 to put the game away.
Key players: Jadon Cybok turned in a dazzling 26-point effort that included six 3-pointers. He jumpstarted the Bears with 14 first-quarter points that included four 3-pointers. At halftime, he had 19 points. Colson Campbell added 14 points- seven in the fourth quarter, including the basket that vaulted him over the 1,000-point milestone. Larry Hughes added 12 points – eight in the fourth quarter.
For the Tigers, Matt Gardler kept his team within striking distance, scoring 24 points – 14 in the first half.
Upper Moreland coach Dan Heiland on the game: “Overall, we played a really good game defensively. You look at the box score, and you see Marple’s main player, Matt Gardler, scored 24 points. As we watched film and prepared ourselves for this game, we knew that he was the lead guy we had to slow down or stop. I wouldn’t say we stopped him, but we definitely did not let him do everything he did throughout the season to allow them to achieve 18-plus victories. He’s a very talented individual. He does a lot of great things for them both sides of the floor. We did a nice job defensively to make every single shot he took, every point he scored – the goal was to make him earn it. Whatever it took, make it as challenging as possible. He made some very difficult shots on some very contested shot opportunities. You tip your hat to those, but at the same time, you live with those. You hope that over time throughout 32 minutes, he can’t do it consistently enough that it’s going to hurt you and you’re going to pay for it.”
–Props: “Jaydon Cybok scored 26 points. He had 19 in the first half and had six 3s total. He just was shot out of the cannon from the jump. You could see it from his warmups from the start. He was just locked in and focused. He was a huge bright spot for us from the jump, knocking down very tough 3s early on and putting the pressure on them to have to defend him even further on the perimeter. When you have to focus on a guy like that being able to knock down 3-pointers from deep, it stretches out the defense and allows other opportunities for our guards to create for themselves off the dribble or find certain individuals in the lane for post-up opportunities.”
UM senior Colson Campbell on heading to states: “It was definitely a goal. Not many teams in Upper Moreland history have ever gone to states. It’s also special because it gives us extra games. Whatever happens in districts, we know we have a chance to compete in another tournament. It’s good because we know our season is extended.”
–Key to team’s success: “Everyone just playing their role. We have a bunch of talented guys on our team, and we have a deep bench, so everyone playing their role, staying together. We have really good chemistry on the team. Everyone is good friends, and that’s really been the main key to all of our success.”
Next up: Upper Moreland (21-5, 9-1 SOL) will travel to top-seeded Upper Dublin for a district semifinal final contest Saturday (1 pm). It will be the third meeting between the two teams and a rematch of the SOL Tournament title game.
“That last game was a fun game to be a part of, but unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the win-loss column,” Heiland said. “It was fun. It was a great lead-in on what we could expect in the district playoffs. We took that step of proving to ourselves we can do it. Even though we haven’t just yet, we proved we could be there. We just now have to go out and make it happen. We have to play our A+ game, and we have to do all the things that have gotten us to this point. If we do that at a high level for 32 minutes, we’ll give ourselves a shot to come out on the better end of things.”
Marple Newtown 12-13-13-11 49
Upper Moreland 20-12-14-21 67
Marple Newtown (49) – Matt Gardler 9 3-4 24; Ryan Keating 3 0-1 6; Jack Dean 4 0-0 9; Jackson Burger 2 0-0 6; Mike Rush 1 0-0 2; Jackson Park 1 0-1 2; TOTALS 20 3-6 49.
Upper Moreland (67) – Nate Best 3 2-2 8; Colson Campbell 5 3-6 14; Anthony Carson 1 0-0 2; Larry Hughes 6 0-0 12; Luke Roussel 2 0-0 5; Jason Cybok 10 0-0 26; TOTALS 27 5-8 67.
3-point goals: MN – Matt Gardler 3, Jackson Burger 2, Jack Dean; UM – Jadon Cybok 6, Colson Campbell, Luke Roussel.
#1 UPPER DUBLIN 72, #9 CHICHESTER 43
The Cardinals upped their remarkable winning streak to 25, and this win punched the team’s ticket to the state tournament.
“Last year was the first time in 22 years Upper Dublin had been to states,” UD coach Derek Brooks said. “I couldn’t tell you the last time they went back-to-back.
“Actually, I think it was the first time in 40 years. I think it was 85 and 86. Last year was only the fourth or fifth time we had qualified for states. You definitely can’t take it for granted. It’s obviously a little bit easier
with the six classifications to make states, but It’s still a great accomplishment, and I’m happy for the boys,”
The Cardinals fell behind early but rallied to take a 19-11 lead after one quarter, and they took a 31-22 lead into halftime. They added to that lead in the second half on their way to the win.
Key players: Ryan Mulroy’s 19 points – 13 in the third quarter – led the Cardinals. Idris Rines and Justin Ragsdale both added 15 points. Ragsdale ignited the Cards with eight first-quarter points, which included a pair of 3s.
Chichester was led by the 19-point effort of Kayron Kinney.
Upper Dublin coach Derek Brooks on the game: “They jumped out to a 9-2 or 9-3 lead on us. We actually had to take a timeout to settle a little bit. Fortunately, we responded great after that and ended up winning the quarter 19-11.
“It really wasn’t until the third quarter that we blew it open. It was a 30-point game, but it was much closer than that for two-thirds of the game. We watched their film, and they had struggled with some turnovers, and our pressure really did work tonight. We forced 12 turnovers in the first half, and we probably finished forcing 24-25 when it was all said and done. That was the number one success for us tonight, and we had a good shooting night as well.”
–Props: “I thought Justin Ragsdale was big for us tonight. He was very steady offensively, got off to a good start. He was good with his effort on defense too.
“Ryan Mulroy had a big second half for us, and Dris (Rines) was pretty steady throughout the game, which was good, and those three kind of paced us tonight.”
–25 in a row: “Winning 25 in a row – I don’t even think about the streak anymore, and I don’t think our guys do either because now it’s playoff time, and the streak doesn’t matter. It’s obviously great, it’s exciting. It’s something we’ll look back on, for sure. It’s going to be hard for any Upper Dublin team to break that again. There are only 22 regular season games.
“The winning has its pluses and its had its minuses. It definitely builds a confidence and a belief that, ‘Hey, we will win,’ but sometimes it can get you a little stagnant and resting on your laurels a little bit. We’re trying to find that balance, and fortunately, it’s playoff time, and it’s easier to stay hungry.”
Next up: Upper Dublin (25-1, 10-0 SOL) will host #4 Upper Moreland in Saturday’s District 1 5A semifinal (1 pm).
Chichester 11-11-13-8 43
Upper Dublin 19-12-25-16 72
Chichester (43) – Derek D’Amico 1 1-2 4; Kayron Kinney 7 2-2 19; Anthony Zagame 2 0-0 5; Dilyn Butler 4 2-4 10; Sabir Lyn 3 0-2 6; Matt Johanson 0 1-2 1; TOTALS 17 6-12 43
Upper Dublin (72) – Kobe Bazemore 2 1-2 5; Ryan Mulroy 7 3-4 19; Idris Rines 6 2-3 15; Justin Ragsdale 5 2-4 15; Reilly McLaughlin 1 0-0 3; James Castronuovo 1 2-4 5; Brandon Altman 1 0-0 2; Horace Jackson 2 2-2 7; Benji Ravitz 0 1-2 1; TOTALS 25 13-21 72.
3-point goals: C – Kayron Kinney, Derek D’Amico, Anthony Zagame; UD – Ryan Mulroy 2, Idris Rines, Justin Ragsdale 3, Reilly McLaughlin, James Castronuovo, Horace Jackson.
District 1 Class 6A
#11 CHELTENHAM 53, #6 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 51
The Panthers – after being outscored 23-5 in the second quarter – found themselves staring at a 14-point halftime deficit. They erased that with an impressive 24-8 third quarter on their way to the hard-fought road win.
“Our conversation at the half – obviously it’s every coach’s thing – ‘There’s no 14-point shot, there’s no 10-point shot. That’s not how the game works,’” Cheltenham coach Patrick Fleury said. “So, our biggest thing was just possession by possession, tried to get the most out of each possession offensively and defensively.”
Key players: Osei Johnson scored 21 points that included eight points (two 3s) in the first quarter and 13 in the Panthers’ 24-point third quarter.
For the Titans, Brett Barrett led the way with 12 points while Ben Harrison added 10.
Cheltenham coach Patrick Fleury: “We went in the half down 33-19. They do a very good job in the zone, they communicated well, and they ran us off the line. We came out in the second half with something that we wanted to do early on to see if we could start some kind of momentum.
“Kamal (Mason) was able to hit a 3 to start the third. From there, we were able to get a couple of stops and get it to about seven. We got good minutes from Chris Harmon. Mark Hill was big. He came in during the second half. We have a lot of guys at that position. At the end of the game, we had two opportunities to kind of put it away. Our team turned it over twice, so we had to end the game on three straight defensive possessions.
“It was more about the extra effort tonight. South is very talented – they have good players, but we were able to make that extra effort tonight, and that’s what gave us the two-point win.
“This is my first time meeting their coach (Louie Ditri). He was just a really nice dude. Knowing he’s such a good dude, I do want to see them make it to states as well. I was happy, for sure to punch our ticket tonight.”
–Back to states “The kids have been through a lot, I’ve been through an enormous amount of stuff the last three years, so for them to get to what the standard has always been from when I was playing and ever since I took over – to get to states is always the goal. I always believe that the kids that are in Cheltenham are special. Some leave, but the core is special. The kids have been through a lot, so the people that spend the time to support them and inquire about them and do things to help them, this is for them and their families. For me, I’m just happy for them. For what they go through and what they will go through as young men later – just understand that no matter what position you’re in, as long as you fight and do things the right way, it may not always be the result you want, but you can live with it, and that is what we wanted to talk about in the locker room.
–An unusual schedule: “Obviously, with the fire that was over here (at SPS Technologies) – first making sure everyone is okay, then not having school and not being able to practice. I just told them, the only thing we can control is to control what we can. They lifted (the restrictions) at 11 o’clock today. We got together last minute, and credit to them, it was a change in their schedule on a day off. To a person, they came in. They put the work in earlier in the day at the middle school because the high school was a shelter. To be able to celebrate them for tonight, that was what I was happy about. I’m elated for them. This was a goal they set out in the beginning of the year. We didn’t do everything we were supposed to all year with our games, but to not quit is the biggest thing I could ask from them, and that’s what they gave each other. Our other coaches are amazing. Being able to work with them and learn from them, it has been a (heck) of a ride in a (heck) of a year, which I hope doesn’t end.”
–Special managers: “Our two managers – Helen and Sydney – have been with me since they were in ninth grade, and they literally raised my daughter. This is their last year. They came in on that 30-2 year, and I didn’t want them to go out with their first year being their best year. We’re winding down. They’re going to college, and I’m going to miss them. They’re a big motivation for me to keep this going.”
Next up: Cheltenham (17-8, 9-1 SOL) will travel to #3 Conestoga for a district quarterfinal contest Friday (6:30 pm).
Cheltenham 14-5-24-10 53
Central Bucks South 10-23-8-10 51
Cheltenham (53) – Kamal Mason 2 1-2 5; Xavier Willoughby 3 1-1 7; Mark Hill 2 0-0 5; Osei Johnson 7 3-3 21; Salim Kelly 2 1-2 6; Kendall Jackson 2 2-2 6; Tyree Martin 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 19 8-10 53.
Central Bucks South (51) – Cole DiEmidio 2 0-0 4; Alex Shahin 3 0-0 7; Brett Barrett 5 0-0 12; Dan Gies 1 2-2 4; Connor Thompson 4 0-0 10; Ben Harrison 2 4-5 9; Kayode Adebayo 1 1-2 3; Leo Medwid 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 19 7-9 51
3-point goals: C – Osei Johnson 4, Kamal Mason, Mark Hill, Salim Kelly; CBS – Connor Thompson 2, Brett Barrett 2, Alex Shahin, Ben Harrison.
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