Upper Dublin advanced to the District 1 5A title game with a road win over top-seeded Holy Ghost Prep. Photos provided courtesy of Greg Lindsay. Check back for a gallery of photos.
District 1 5A semifinal
#4 UPPER DUBLIN 66, #1 HOLY GHOST PREP 45
Upper Dublin made it 3-for-3, earning their third trip to the District 1 5A title game at West Chester University in as many years.
“We’re calling West Chester our home away from home,” UD coach Derek Brooks said. “We have a bunch of former players who go to West Chester. Ryan Mulroy’s there, Chris Kohlbrenner is there, Colin O’Sullivan is there. So, it’s becoming a fun trip. Obviously, you make it there, you’re excited, but it’s been a great privilege to be able to play there a couple times, and we’re hoping we could be the first team to go back-to-back since I think Penncrest maybe seven or eight years ago.”
Holy Ghost has also had a history of success in the postseason, but this game belonged to the Cardinals from the outset.
“Ghost is a unique team and a unique place to play,” UD coach Derek Brooks said. “Fortunately, we had played there three years ago. So, Kobe (Bazemore), Noah (Cohen) and Brandon (Altman) had been there. No one else had. It’s an old school gym, which is great. I like their gym, and they have an old program that has storied success. They have a great alumni base who care about the program. We knew they would get a big student section, So, we knew it was going to be an intense environment, and right out of the gate, it was.
“Their crowd was awesome and fortunately, we handled it decently well. We couldn’t buy a jump shot to save our life, but fortunately, we got a ton of offensive rebounds, and we played good defense.”
The Cardinals led 8-4 after one quarter and added to that lead in every quarter.
Key players: The Cardinals had three players in double figures. Kobe Bazemore led the way with 16 points – 10 in the second half. Noah Cohen added 14 points – all in the middle two quarters, and Horace Jackson had 13 points – 11 in the first half.
Upper Dublin coach Derek Brooks:
–The game: “We couldn’t buy a jump shot to save our life, but fortunately, we got a ton of offensive rebounds, and we played good defense. The first quarter was 8-4, and we made a run, and then they stormed back to tie it. And then we made a big run from there and just slowly kept extending it. We got it to eleven at halftime.
“Our defense was really good in the first half. We tried to put a big emphasis on not fouling. They do a good job of drawing fouls, and we can get ourselves in foul trouble a little bit. So, we did a good job in the first half, and once we settled in a little bit, the offense really opened up. And then the second half, the offense was great.
“We scored forty in the second half, but that’s when our defense slipped a little. But fortunately, our offense was better than their offense, and we extended it to about 20.”
–A slippery ending: “It was a weird ending. Their gym was really cold to start, and then because it was such a packed house, it got really warm, so the floor got a lot of condensation on it, and guys were slipping. Thankfully, the game was out of reach by midway through the fourth because if it was a close game, I don’t even know if we would have been able to finish because literally guys were slipping all over the place. They were debating shutting the game down, but we closed it out.”
UD’s seeding – “We knew with our schedule that we made that it made us a little susceptible to getting a lower seed in districts. We played three PCL teams which are St. Joe’s Prep, Archbishop Ryan and La Salle which are all good teams, but their records were .500 or below, so we didn’t get as many points. Our crossover games didn’t have good records, so that hurt us a little bit. (Class) 5A was really competitive. I think we would have been the four seed in 6A. So, you would think we would have been a lower seed in 6A, but it just was one of those years where the top four seeds in 5A had a good record.
“Credit to Ghost. They lost so much talent last year, for them to be 18-2 coming into tonight’s game – I think their coach should have been in consideration for coach of the year with how his year’s going. One of the reasons why we tested ourselves (during the season) is so when we got into environments like this, we were ready. I don’t think any of our guys were intimidated at all by the environment and having to go on the road. These guys have been in so many big games in the last two to three years, so I felt pretty good about us being able to handle that environment.”
–Props: “Our starters were awesome tonight. We got a really balanced effort from everybody. Kobe Bazemore scored the ball well. Noah Cohen took a little bit to get going, but his second half was great. Justin Ragsdale was awesome defensively – I think he had about seven blocks. It was one of Horace Jackson’s best games overall, in my opinion; he was shot out of a cannon. He didn’t shoot the ball great from three tonight but attacked the rim really well.
“Brandon Altman was sick all week. He missed practice leading up to both games this week, but he had a great game in each game and just pushed through. He can like barely talk right now because he’s sick, but he battled. So, it waa good night for our starters for sure.”
Up next: Upper Dublin will face the winner of Saturday’s #3 Penncrest/#2 Springfield-Delco game on Thursday at West Chester University.
Upper Dublin 8-18-22-18 66
Holy Ghost Prep 4-11-17-13 45
Upper Dublin (66) Kobe Bazemore 5 6-8 17; Noah Cohen 5 3-3 14; Horace Jackson IV 4 5-6 13; Brandon Altman 3 0-0 7; Justin Ragsdale 3 0-0 7; Bryce Kukla 2 0-0 5; Luke Caron 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 23 14-17 66.
Holy Ghost Prep (45) – 5 2-4 12; Jack Polek 4 4-6 12; Chris Albright 3 0-0 8; Adam McDonald 2 0-0 5; KJ Rhodes 1 0-0 3; Hunter Schmitt 1 0-0 3; Liam Condon 1 0-0 2; Brandan Clark 0 0-2 0; TOTALS 17 6-12 45.
3-point goals: UD –Altman, Bazemore, Ragsdale, Cohen, Kulka, Caron; HGP – Albright 2, Rhodes, Schmitt, McDonald.
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