Four SOL teams advanced out of Saturday’s opening round of the District One 6A Tournament. Upper Dublin/Truman photos provided courtesy of Kathy Leister Photography. CB East/PV photos provided by Donna Longacre, and Neshaminy/CR South photos courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p80471984)
Four SOL teams – Abington, Neshaminy, Upper Dublin and Central Bucks East – advanced to Wednesday’s second round of the District One 6A Tournament. Ten SOL teams will be in action on Wednesday.
#12 UPPER DUBLIN 49, HARRY S TRUMAN 39
Harry S Truman coach Collette Munford saw some jitters and butterflies in her players as they took the court for the Tigers' first playoff game in over 30 years.
Munford might have seen them, but for the first half, nobody else in Upper Dublin's gym did. Truman came out with a lot of energy and a lot of hustle and looked like a team that's been a regular in the postseason. The Flying Cardinals, a team that has made long postseason runs the last few years, looked like the team tasting the postseason for the first time.
That was the first half. The third quarter flipped the script, and the Tigers saw a special season come to an end.
"The girls were crying tears because our three seniors are leaving but I told them we're not going backwards from here," said Truman coach Collette Munford, who will lose Jayda Campbell, Sabria Lytes and Daeja Moore. "We're continuing to build. We made history today by getting to the playoffs for the first time in 30 years. We had the crowd – they came and supported us. Everybody told us to keep our heads up and I'm proud of that and of the direction the program is going."
Upper Dublin did a lot of things it doesn't normally do in the first half. It threw the ball away, quite a bit, eventually totaling 24 turnovers for the game. The Cardinals weren't connected on defense, giving up drives, perimeter shots and a lot of second chances opportunities. Many of those offensive rebounds led to a UD player fouling the Truman rebounder.
On offense, Josie Barrett wasn't hitting shots, although most of the Cardinals not named Nicole Kaiser were missing shots. Kaiser, who scored a game-high 18, had nine in the first half to help keep Upper Dublin in the game.
What had Upper Dublin so out of sorts? For starters, there were a lot of fouls called in the first half. That, coupled with UD's turnovers meant a lot of dead-ball restarts, perfect for Truman to set up its press defense.
The Tigers aren't big, but they have long arms and they're fast and that's enough to cause whoever they're playing some trouble.
"Any time a pressing team can stop the clock and get their press organized is always a plus," Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten said. "I thought Truman did a great job. They were the underdog coming into the game and I told some of my girls after the game that we have a lot of playoff experience and (Truman) doesn't have any and they, for large chunks of the game today, looked like the team with girls who have been in 15 playoff games before and we looked like the team who had never played a playoff game before.”
Barrett ended up with 16 points but only had three when she was fouled and sent to the line with 12 seconds left in the first half. The senior hit both to cut Truman's lead to 22-16 at the break. The Tigers – who were led by freshman Daisha Campbell’s eight first-half points – led 19-12 at one point, so getting that close was a relief, even if Barrett didn't see it that way.
"It felt like more than six," Barrett said. "At least to me it did, I don't know, I hate being down. It felt like they had more momentum and energy going into the half. But it was good that it was six and no more than six or else we would have been in trouble."
Upper Dublin has been a second half team all season and the Cardinals, after playing a poor first half, responded with an almost perfect third quarter. Barrett found Demi Balasa for a bucket on the first possession and then UD's guards started forcing Truman into turnovers. The catch was, the Cardinals weren't scoring off of them.
Then, after three misses and three offensive rebounds, the last going long to Barrett, the Cardinals got the tide-turner. Barrett kicked the ball to a wide-open Maggie Weglos at the top of the key and the junior buried the shot with a bit less than six minutes to go, cutting the lead to one.
"In the third quarter, we had some momentum going in and my three maybe tipped us over into getting us focused and telling us this is our game and this is how we should be playing," Weglos said. "It started rolling."
The shot's impact was not lost on Funsten, who saw his team take a 23-22 lead on a Kaiser bucket and never relinquish it.
"I thought that was the biggest shot of the game," Funsten said of Weglos' lone made shot. "Nothing was falling, that was the fourth attempt and it finally got us to relax and got us in our press and we went from there."
Barrett closed the third with a flurry, hitting her last four shots, including three 3s, and scoring 11 straight points for Upper Dublin. The Cardinals needed every bit of the 36-26 lead they took into the fourth, because they fell back into some first half habits of fouling and turning the ball over.
But when it came down to it, UD was stellar at the foul line, hitting 11-of-12 attempts in the fourth quarter.
"It's hard when multiple people are crowding and pushing you back and you have to be strong with the ball," said Weglos, who had a team-high six assists. "We didn't come to the ball as well and threw some stupid passes, which didn't help. We need to play how we did in the third quarter."
A foul late in the third quarter proved costly for Truman when an illegal screen call negated a Jayda Campbell 3-pointer during UD's comeback run. Munford said the call took some energy out of her girls and that it did hurt the Tigers, who were looking to slow down the Cardinals' roll. Sophomore Alexis McCoy scored 10 of her team-high 16 points in the second half.
The Tigers had good-sized contingent of fans make the trip and they showered the players with an ovation as they exited the floor at halftime and again at the end of the game.
"Girls basketball – people don't really support it that much and they should, the girls work just as hard as the boys," Munford said. "To see that crowd, they came out today and supported these girls and they still supported them even though they lost. It was a tough game but like I said, we're going to build from it.
"They didn't know what to expect, we haven't been here before. I told them it's just another basketball game."
A lot of credit to Truman – they came ready to play,” Funsten said. “We had one of the best weeks of practice any of my teams have ever had, and we also scrimmaged Neshaminy and had a great scrimmage against them. You wouldn’t have known it watching the first half or the fourth quarter.
“Credit to my girls for kind of grinding it out. Out of my five years, there’s only been one time that we’ve played a pretty smooth first game. The other four years we’ve just found a way to win, and it’s been ugly, and that’s where you’d put this one. Truman came and they were fearless, and they expected to win when they came. It pushed us back and really, really challenged us.
“We’re hoping to look back and say, ‘Hey, it’s great we were challenged in this game.’ We were not looking past them, but we did expect to win. I don’t know if we thought it would be easy, but they sure didn’t make it easy on us, and they came ready to play. Our girls really responded well with a really clean and great third quarter.”
Upper Dublin (18-5, 12-2 SOL), the No. 12 seed, will face No. 5 seed CB West on Wednesday in the second round. The winner will go to the quarterfinals while the loser will have a chance to extend its season in the playback bracket.
"This was a jitter game, a lot of our young girls aren't used to that," Barrett said. "We had to get past that game and I think now we should be alright. We're going to have to take every possession of every game coming forward one at a time."
Jackie Vargas led the CArdinals under the basket with 10 rebounds while Balasa had five.
Truman closed out its most successful season in several decades with a 13-10 record (4-8 SOL).
Harry S Truman 14 8 4 13 – 39
Upper Dublin 10 6 20 13 – 49
Harry S Truman (39) – Daeja Moore 5, Jayda Campbell 3, Alexis McCoy 16, Sabria Lyles 7, Daisha Campbell 8
Upper Dublin (49) – Nicole Kaiser 18, Josie Barrett 16, Demi Balasa 4, Maggie Weglos 3, Jackie Vargas 8
#10 NESHAMINY 47, #23 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 34
Coach Joe Lally’s Redskin squad had defeated the Golden Hawks by double digits twice during the regular season, but he wasn’t taking anything for granted heading into Saturday’s district opener.
“We focused a lot on the fact that we would be playing them for a third time, and both teams know each other so well,” the Redskins’ coach said. “Just the mutual respect we have for their girls and their coaching staff, we knew we didn’t want to get off to a slow start.
“We got off to a slow start the last game at their place. We felt that getting out of the gate quick was going to be important today. It’s nerve-racking to play someone a third time.”
The Golden Hawks opened up an early 5-0 lead, thanks to a Kasey Schlupp three and a basket by Payton Spadaccino, but the Redskins – sparked by the hot hand of Allison Harvey – answered with a 16-2 run to take control of the game. The Redskins’ junior guard connected on a pair of three-pointers and scored eight points in the quarter.
“I thought Kristin Curley also did a great job,” Lally said of his rookie point guard. “It won’t really show up in the first quarter, but as a freshman in her first playoff game – she didn’t do anything wrong, but I just felt she got comfortable by the third or fourth possession.
“That’s when we started running our sets a 
little bit better. Ali (Harvey) got some open looks, and we were able to get Devon going to the basket, and things opened up from there.”
The Redskins took a 28-15 lead into halftime and never looked back.
Harvey led the Redskins with 16 while Storms added eight. Curley had seven assists and seven rebounds to go along with five points.
“Kristin had a really nice game for us,” Lally said. “She only had five points, but seven assists tell you that she was getting us in the flow of things.”
Brooke Mullin had a team-high eight rebounds and three assists for the Redskins.
“We’re also getting points from Olivia Scotti and Kelli Kowalick, who are freshmen,” said Lally. “They gave us big minutes today, and they’re coming along nicely. They were major contributors to today’s win.”
Both Scotti and Kowalick scored five points.
Spadaccino led all scorers with 18 points in her final high school game. Schlupp added six.
Neshaminy (17-5, 9-3 SOL) will travel to seventh-seeded Central Bucks South for a second round game on Wednesday. Council Rock South closed out its season with a 10-13 record (5-7 SOL).
Council Rock South 7-8-7-12 34
Neshaminy 16-12-10-9 47
Council Rock South (34) – Payton Spadaccino 18, Bailey Vetter 2, Kasey Schlupp 6, Faith Turner 3, Allison McGowan 3, Hannah Binder 2.
Neshaminy (47) – Emily Alexis 4, Olivia Scotti 5, Brooke Mullin 4, Kristin Curley 5, Kelli Kowalick 5, Devon Storms 8, Allison Harvey 16.
#15 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 53, #18 PERKIOMEN VALLEY 30
The Patriots didn’t appear to be in an enviable position when the district brackets were announced, and they found themselves staring at a first round date with the defending District One 4A champions.
But the Vikings – who brought an 11-11 record into the game – have struggled this season, and their struggles continued on Saturday. The Patriots saw to that, setting the tone early when Bri Talbot came up with a steal on the Vikings’ first possession of the game that Megan Browne turned into a layup.
Midway through the opening quarter, the Patriots found themselves clinging to a 5-3 lead, but Bailey McManus buried a three-pointer and then came up with a steal on the defensive end that set up a Bridget Birkhead layup. Just like that- the Patriots led 10-3.
“Bailey was on, and once she hit the first one – she was ready to go and on it,” said Talbot, whose penetration and dish set up McManus first three. “It helped to know I could kick it out to her, and it’s just as much a chance of me taking a layup as me making a shot, so that’s helpful when I’m driving.”
McManus acknowledged she had some extra motivation.
“I just knew I didn’t want this to be our last game, and we obviously didn’t want it to be all of our seniors’ last game, so you just have to go out with the mindset you’re going to get them from the start, not have a slow start and be playing catch up the whole time,” said McManus
East led 15-7 after one quarter with McManus the undeniable sparkplug, contributing eight points – which included a pair of 3-pointers, three rebounds and three steals.
“She plays with everything she has,” coach Liz Potash said. “You don’t start since your freshman year if you don’t play that way. She gives absolutely everything she has.”
The Patriots opened up a 24-13 lead after McManus scored on a drive, but the Vikings battled back to make it a 28-20 game at the intermission. It could have been more but the Patriots – who had 14 steals in the game – had trouble converting their opportunities into baskets.
Points were hard to come by in the opening minutes of the second half for both teams, but baskets by Talbot and McManus put the Patriots on top 32-20. The Vikings did not score their first points of the second half until Alex Blomstrom buried a three with 3:10 left in the third quarter.
The Patriots closed out the frame with a 7-2 tear that included a three by Sophia Mancuso and a pair of Grace Stewart baskets that made it a 39-25 game heading into the final quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Patriots did most of their damage at the foul line. Talbot led the charge, burying 7-of-8.
“We only gave up 10 points in the second half on defense, so obviously, that was key,” Potash said. “We made a couple little adjustments, and they worked.”
“I don’t think it was our best game. You win by 23 in a game you’re not overly happy with – it is nice to get wins like that.”
Talbot led the Patriots with 17 points to go along with three steals. McManus added 15 – 10 in the first half. She also had a team-high six steals and four assists. Birkhead added six points.
“This is huge,” said Talbot. “We were really trying to get out of the first round.
“We knew they were a good team – we knew we were close (in the seedings). It was a tough game, but we just had to come out and play our game.”
Megan Jonassen led the Vikings with 10 points while Kelly Owens had eight and Blomstrom chipped in with seven.
Central Bucks East (14-8, 6-6 SOL) will travel to second-seeded Boyertown for a second round game on Wednesday.
“We just need to go into the next game with confidence,” McManus said. “My freshman year Boyertown knocked us out, and that’s when they were the number one seed and we were the 32nd seed.
“We just played the number one seed (North Penn) to six. Our league tends to be more stacked, so we’re confident going in.”
Perkiomen Valley 7-13-5-5 30
Central Bucks East 15-13-11-14 53
Perkiomen Valley (30) – Megan Moore 0 1-2 1; Alex Blomstrom 2 1-2 7; Kelly Owens 1 5-6 8; Megan Jonassen 5 0-2 10; Taylor Hamm 1 2-2 4; Totals 9 9-14 30.
Central Bucks East (53) – Sophia Mancuso 1 0-0 3; Bridget Birkhead 1 4-4 6; Gina Russo 1 1-2 3; Megan Browne 1 1-2 3; Bailey McManus 6 1-4 15; Mel Wetzel 0 2-2 2; Bri Talbot 5 7-9 17 Grace Stewart 2 0-0 4; Totals 17 16-23 53.
#9 ABINGTON 66, #24 KENNETT 23
Energy – the Ghosts had plenty of it in Saturday’s district opener, which was very bad news for the overmatched Blue Demons. Abington raced to a 28-5 lead after one quarter and took a 45-9 lead into halftime.
“Our energy was really good, and that’s what is really important with our team,” coach Dan Marsh said. “Whoever we play, when we come with energy like we did tonight, then we’re tough to beat.
“I think we just overwhelmed them. I don’t think they’ve seen that type of aggression probably ever. That’s as well as we’ve played all year energy-wise. If we play with that type of energy, we’re going to be a difficult team to face.
“(In the first half), they weren’t even getting the ball over half court, and even when they did, they were getting rushed shots and not good ones. Everybody just kind of went at it. With us, it’s just a matter of coming out with focused energy.”
The Ghosts received double-figure efforts from Lizzie O’Leary (16 points), Sam Brusha (13 points) and Kassondra Brown (10 points). Britney James added seven points while Tamie Wessels and Camryn Lexow both had six.
Abington (18-5, 10-2 SOL) will travel to Souderton for what promises to be an interesting second round matchup. Marsh, for one, was glad to be playing on Saturday.
“If I was a one, two, three or four seed, I’d be okay with a bye,” Marsh said. “I wouldn’t love it, but I’d be okay with it.
“Anything past that – I wanted to play. We were able to stay with our routine. We scrimmaged on Tuesday and then played another game today. Routine is very important for our team. They can lose focus pretty quickly.
“Granted, we have to go on the road to Souderton, and that’s going to be a very difficult game, but I’d much rather have a game under our belt rather than going in there without playing.”
Kennett 5-4-2-12 23
Abington 28-17-11-10 66
Kennett (23) – Maddie Fowler 4, Caroline Hertz 7, Andrea Prestianne 10, Maddie Conlin-Day 2.
Abington (66) – Tamia Wessels 6, Jordyn Allen 2, Morgan Benson 1, Kassondra Brown 10, Sam Brusha 13, Britney James 7, Camryn Lexow 6, Miranda Liebtag 5, Lizzie O’Leary 16.
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