Upper Dublin fell to Unionville in Thursday’s District 1 5A title game at West Chester University. Photos courtesy of Michael Rice Photography. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f716903222
District 1 5A title game
#1 UNIONVILLE 63, #2 UPPER DUBLIN 36
In a bit of an unfortunate twist for the Cardinals, the locker rooms of Upper Dublin and Unionville for Thursday’s District 1 5A title game at West Chester University were directly next to each other.
And try though you might, it was impossible to miss the postgame celebration going on in one and the silence in the other. Ryan Mulroy – standing in the hallway just outside his team’s locker room – couldn’t have missed the trophy being hoisted to cheers when it was brought into Unionville’s locker room.
This loss hurt. A whole lot.
“You’ve just got to flush it and move on,” Mulroy said. “We’ve just got to go back to practice, fix things, watch film. We’re going to use this as motivation moving forward. It
sucks, but this is just going to motivate us for next year. Our goal is to be back here, and we’ve still got games to play. The job’s not finished.”
Coach Derek Brooks is hoping his team will follow the same path as Unionville took to Thursday’s title game at West Chester University.
“We’re hoping a little trend continues,” the UD coach said. “Last year, (Unionville) lost 61-36 to Radnor. Radnor lost all their guys (to graduation).
“This year we lost 63-36 to them, so we’re hoping there’s a little passing of the torch type moment. Obviously, there are no guarantees. Getting here, you want to take advantage as much as you can, but with the amount of guys we have coming back, we’re hoping we can be back here.”
Early on, it looked as though it was going to be a tightly contested battle with four lead changes in the opening five minutes. What turned out to be the Cardinals’ final lead came when Idris Rines buried his second of back-to-back 3s to give UD a 10-8 lead with 3:23 remaining. Seconds later, Ryan Brown connected on his first of four 3-pointers in the contest.
There was nothing to suggest this is where the lead changes would end, but it was. The Longhorns led 15-10 after one quarter, and things only got worse in the second as the Cardinals endured a five-and-a-half minute scoring drought that was broken when Kobe Bazemore scored with 5:50 remaining in the half. By that time, the Longhorns led 26-12.
“I definitely think there was a mix of nerves and excitement just because it’s a big moment,” said Mulroy, who was whistled for his fourth foul with 4:49 remaining in the half. “Our school hasn’t been here in 39 years. It’s a championship game. Yeah, it gets us a little nervous at first.
“But I feel like once we started to get into the flow of the game – a lot of that goes away, but they were just the better team tonight. They were making shots. We just didn’t execute.”
Unionville took a 32-17 lead into halftime and – after a third quarter that saw the two teams combine for just 10 points – went into the final quarter with a 39-20 advantage.
In the fourth quarter, Mulroy scored 10 straight points for the Cardinals, but the Longhorns answered, and they put an exclamation point on the win with a 24-point four quarter.
“You can’t always shoot the best – tonight wasn’t our best night shooting,” Mulroy said. “You have days like that. You can’t always make your shots, and today just wasn’t our day.
“They were the better team tonight. We all believe in each other. Our shots just weren’t falling, but credit to them, they played really hard, and we’ve got to go back to practice and just work on some things.”
As for his team’s success, Unionville coach Chris Cowles credited his team’s preparation.
“They have a lot of guys that can contribute, and we were very fortunate to have three days prep for them,” the Longhorns’ coach said. “I think that made a big difference, to be honest, in our preparation. It could be a little different if we only had one or two days to practice.”
If there was a secret to keep UD from finding its offensive rhythm, the Longhorns found it.
“Just trying to understand what they do well and take their options away from a personnel standpoint,” Cowles said.
The Longhorns had a height advantage at just about every position with four of five starters 6-3 or over and 6-6 center and Tulane baseball commit Nick Diehl manning the middle. In a dominant first-half performance, the Longhorns controlled the backboards.
“That’s probably the number one thing we emphasize, and obviously, we have big bodies in there, too, which helps, and they have a desire to rebound the ball,” Cowles said.
Brooks acknowledged that rebounding was a concern.
“We talked about boxing out,” the UD coach said. “How we play can make it a little harder to box out – we knew if we played these guys in the halfcourt, we were probably not going to win this game, so we had to press them, speed them up, and I thought it actually worked for the most part. We created a lot of turnovers, quick shots – they hit some, but I’m happy with the missed shots they had on the quick shots, but we definitely didn’t rebound enough off them.”
For the Longhorns, senior Ryan Brown’s 24 points led the way. They also got 12 points from both JT Anderson and Diehl.
Mulroy’s 11 points led the Cardinals while Rines added eight, and Kobe Bazemore had six points.
“The biggest thing tonight was – we could not score, and I thought defensively, with their personnel – they’re big across the board,” Brooks said. “They’re bigger than us. Their whole philosophy is to keep you in front – they don’t want to overextend, and they want to make you play over their length, and it’s smart. It’s the way they should play.
“We got some good looks, and we missed some layups, and that doesn’t help. And it’s a big game. It the first time for our guys, and we’re a young team, so it’s a multitude of things. Sometimes it’s just hard playing over top of that size. Hopefully, in a year or two, if we see something like that again, we’re just bigger, stronger and older.
“I think they deserve the most credit for how well they played defensively.”
Thursday’s loss snapped a 15-game winning streak for the Cardinals, whose last loss came on Jan. 3 to Central Bucks East (61-60).
“I think it’s a little bit of an ‘oh my god, we lost’ type of feeling,” Brooks said. “You just have to have a short memory. We can get down on ourselves and sulk, or we can pick ourselves up and not feel sorry for ourselves.
“We’ve got plenty of hoops to play. I told them before the game – whatever happens, it’s a phenomenal season. It’s a good test. We’re going to be off tomorrow, but we have practice Saturday – Who’s going to come ready to go? Who’s going to move on and come ready to play? We’ve done a good job of it this year the other times we lost, so I’m hoping it’s no different on Saturday.”
Upper Dublin (24-4, 15-1 SOL) will face District 3 Exeter Township in next Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 5A state tournament.
Upper Dublin 10-7-3-16 36
Unionville 17-15-7-24 63
Upper Dublin (36) – Kobe Bazemore 3 0-3 6, Chris Kohlbrenner 1 1-2 3, Ryan Mulroy 5 1-2 11, Idris Rines 2 2-2 8, Brady Fogle 1 2-3 4, Reilly McLaughlin 1 1-2 4. TOTAL 13 7-11 36.
Unionville (63) -Ryan Brown 7 6-7 24, JT Anderson 4 2-2 12, Charlie Kammeier 3 1-2 9, James Brenner 2 0-0 4, Nick Diehl 4 4-4 12, Jack Robbins 1 0-0 2, TOTAL 21 13-15 63.
3-point goals: UD – Idris Rines 2, Reilly McLaughlin; Unionville – Ryan Brown 4, JT Anderson 2, Charlie Kammeier 2.
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