Upper Moreland advanced to the PIAA 5A Elite Eight with an overtime win while Upper Dublin saw its remarkable season come to an end. UM/Suburban York photos courtesy of Michael Rice Photography, and Upper Dublin/Bonner-Prendergast photos courtesy of Greg Lindsay. Check back for galleries of both games.
PIAA 5A second round
#1-4 UPPER MORELAND 61, #3-4 YORK SUBURBAN 55 (OT)
The Golden Bears keep adding to their history-making postseason, rallying for an overtime win over York Suburban in a thriller at Coatesville High School Tuesday. And a program that had never in its history won a state game has now won two.
“It’s crazy to me, but it’s not over,” junior Larry Hughes said. “I’m not ready to celebrate yet.”
If some are surprised to find the Golden Bears in such elite company, Hughes is not in that number.
“We’ve been playing with each other since we were children,” the Bears’ power forward said. “I knew we had something special, I knew we would go far with this team.
“It’s just the bond we have and the communication on the court and in the huddles.”
Hughes certainly did his part to keep UM’s season alive, finishing with a double-double that included 17 points and double-digit rebounds. Impressive by any standard but especially remarkable considering Hughes was out sick the past two days.
“I came into the game a little sick, but I had to be here to help my team,” Hughes said.
The 6-4 junior had a singular focus when he stepped onto the court.
“Just dominating the boards, knowing that I’m the size on my team, so I have to go up there and get those rebounds or whatever my team needs to get momentum,” Hughes said. “I know I can help.”
The Bears led 15-11 after one quarter and extended their advantage to 24-13 only to see the Trojans trim that lead to one by halftime, 26-25. Luke Roussel's eight points off the bench - including a pair of 3s - led the Golden Bears.
York Suburban had the hot hand out of halftime, opening a 36-28 lead midway through the third quarter, but this time it was the Bears rallying to take a 41-40 lead after a Jadon Cybok 3-pointer at the buzzer of the frame. Hughes had seven points in the frame to lead UM.
The Bears led by five late in the game only to watch the Trojans rally to knot the score by burying a 3 with 15 seconds remaining in regulation.
“We knew the play they were going to run, and the kid comes off their screen and shoots a deep 3 from the top of the key and banks it in, and the game’s tied,” UM coach Dan Heiland said.
After the Bears’ shot for the win came up short, the stage was set for overtime.
“To be honest, a lot of momentum was on their side,” Heiland said. “We just kept saying in the circle, ‘Reset, refocus. We have four more minutes, and we have to make the most of it. We can’t hang our heads on what happened. We’re here now. Step up, make plays when they’re there for you, and continue to play with confidence.’
“That’s what our guys did. We got an easy two points, and at that point, it was just holding them off, and we were making free throws at the end of the game to close it out.”
According to Hughes, York Suburban’s late rally did not deter the Bears.
“We said what we say every game – ‘It’s a game of rounds like a boxing match,’” Hughes said. “Win one round at a time, and that’s how you win the game. It was tied up, and we just had to win one more round, and we won that round.”
The Bears outscored York Suburban 8-2 in overtime, which included a 6-for-8 effort at the charity stripe.
Key players: Larry Hughes finished with a double-double that included 17 points - 13 in the second half. Larry Roussel added 11 points off the bench, which included three 3-pointers. Jadon Cybok also had 11, and both Colson and Cannon Campbell had eight points. Colson Campbell's five points led the Bears in OT and included a 3-for-4 effort at the foul line in extra time.
Upper Moreland coach Dan Heiland on the program’s second state win: “I don’t know how to explain it. It is special. Something we tell the guys pretty often is that these games and these opportunities and challenges – we should be grateful for them, and we shouldn’t take them for granted. Not many teams can say they’ve played this long. Not too many teams have won this many games. Right now, we’re one of eight teams left in PIAA 5A basketball playoffs. It’s an incredible accomplishment. Again, I’m just very proud of my guys for all the work they put in. The cliché is – all the blood, sweat and tears, but just showing up every day. It’s a long season. We’ve played an upwards of 30 games now, and they come in with energy, and they compete every day. It makes my job easy when I can show up, and I’m getting that kind of energy from my players. I’m just happy for them. It’s an exciting time in Upper Moreland basketball history right now. We’re just looking to stay hungry and not be satisfied and take it one day at a time and one game at a time.”
--Props: “Early on, we had some pretty offensive and defensive possessions. We did a nice job limiting them on their misses and, for the most part, holding them to one-and-done. We were able to get Larry (Hughes) a bunch of easy buckets around the basket in high-scoring areas. He made some big shots in the first half.
“Luke Roussel was awesome. He was a huge lift for us off the bench. He had three 3s – two in the first half and one in the third quarter. Cannon Campbell was tremendous and another huge lift for us. He finished with eight points. It’s a challenging job to have as a bench player, and we had two guys – one being a senior and one being a freshman step up in big moments. It’s a testament to their attitude and their mindset going into it because many times as a coach you say – be ready, you never know when your opportunity is going to come. That was full circle tonight for those two, and they both did a tremendous job.
“Colson Campbell is as steady as he is and made two free throws at the end of the game. He's always big for us.”
Up next; Upper Moreland (23-7, 9-1 SOL) will take on Bonner-Prendergast in Friday’s a PIAA 6A quarterfinal matchup at a site to be determined.
Suburban York 11-14-15-13-2 55
Upper Moreland 15-11-15-12-8 61
Suburban York (55) – Kane Stryhn 5 2-2 17; Silas Leonard 4 5-7 13; Kai Stryhn 1 5-5 7; Brayden Egger 2 0-0 4; Andrew Ekstrom 2 0-0 6; Trent Weinstein 2 2-2 6; Malik Rhoades 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 17 14-16 55.
Upper Moreland (61) – Nate Best 1 2-4 4; Colson Campbell 2 4-6 8; Anthony Carson 1 0-0 2; Larry Hughes 7 3-4 17; Luke Roussel 4 0-0 11; Jadon Cybok 3, 3-3 11; Cannon Campbell 2 4-7 8; TOTALS 20 16-24 61.
3-point goals: YS – Kane Stryhn 5, Andrew Ekstrom 2; UM – Luke Roussel 3, Jadon Cybok 2.
#12-3 BONNER-PRENDERGAST 59, #1-1 UPPER DUBLIN 37
Derek Brooks emerged from his team’s emotional postgame meeting and acknowledged he’d just delivered what was a seldom-used speech.
“I had to dust that one off,” the Cardinals’ third-year coach said.
A magical 28-game winning streak that began on Dec. 3 after a season-opening loss to Lower Merion came to an end on a spring-like March evening three months later at Bensalem High School against a Bonner-Pendergast squad with nothing to lose. In between, the Cardinals won every title that mattered – the SOL Liberty Division, the SOL Tournament and the District 1 5A Tournament.
“It certainly hasn’t hit me yet,” said Brooks. “I said to them – it’s hard to put into words just what this season means. It may never be done again at Upper Dublin. It’s one of the best teams – I don’t know all the history, but in the Suburban One, we’re one of the best teams in recent memory.
“It stinks to lose. I think it’s going to bother us how we went out. It was easiest our worst game of the year, by far, really on both ends of the floor. It obviously always stinks to lose. Only one team ends up winning at the end of the year.
“We’ll ultimately walk away feeling extremely grateful for this group. They gave us everything every day. This was a group that was pretty much all basketball kids and since April had a common goal and embodied a team – just effort, focus, sharing the ball, unselfishness.
“I said to them, ‘You are in an era that is less about teams and more about individuals and cliques.’ That’s what everybody always complimented us for. We were a team. It stinks, but we’ll certainly look back on it and be very grateful and proud.”
Outside his team’s locker room, senior Ryan Mulroy fielded every question thrown his way. Just minutes earlier - with the scoreboard clock frozen at 1:49 – Mulroy and fellow senior Idris Rines left the court together for the final time to a rousing ovation from the appreciative UD faithful. There was no mistaking the immense emotions as they hugged coaches and teammates alike.
“It hit me right away,” Mulroy said. “Just everything - coach Brooks coming in. My sophomore year we lost in the first round of districts, and we lost eight seniors.
“I think a lot of people thought that was supposed to be our year. We come back my junior year we make district championship. No one thinks we’re doing that, and then we do what we did this season, which is just so special.
“I’m just so grateful to be part of this. I don’t think anyone really thought Upper Dublin basketball would have such a season like this. I’m never going to let anyone take it away from me. I’m always going to come back here and watch games. My little brother in a couple of years is going to be up here. I’m excited to come back and support the coach, support these guys and just really reflect on the moments I had here at Upper Dublin.”
Mulroy acknowledged it was too early to put the Cards’ extraordinary season in perspective.
“It’s something I don’t think as a team we really understand what we’ve accomplished,” the senior standout said. “We’ve won 28 straight games. That’s something I never would have thought of would happen. I didn’t really realize it yet, but it’s going to hit me soon.
“I’m so proud of every single one of these guys, our coaches. We’ve really put the work in the season to get the district championship and then win a state playoff game. It’s just such a special season I’ll never forget.”
As for his team’s lengthy list of accomplishments, Mulroy said.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “I’ll look back on those moment and say – ‘Man, we really did that.’ There aren’t many teams that have been able to do that. I just think everyone on this team is going to look back on that and feel really proud.
“We didn’t play our game tonight. I know I didn’t play my best game, but we’re never going to let anyone take away what we accomplished this year. Every single one of those is very special.”
--The game: The Cardinals – sparked by eight points from Idris Rines – trailed by just one after one quarter but then managed just five points in the second quarter and trailed 27-17 when Bonner’s Jakeem Carroll buried a 3 at the buzzer heading into halftime.
It was Carroll sinking another 3-pointer on his team’s opening possession of the second half to up Bonner’s lead to 30-17. The Cards trailed by just a 32-25 score after Reilly McLaughlin buried his second of back-to-back 3s.
“It was like – ‘All right, good – the lid is coming off a little bit,’ but we couldn’t get some stops,” Brooks said. “It was a tough night.”
Bonner answered McLaughlin’s 3s with a 12-4 tear to close out the quarter on top 44-29. UD would get no closer the rest of the way.
What went wrong in Tuesday’s season-ending loss? Just about everything. Shots that typically fall didn’t fall. Rebounds that usually landed in the Cardinals’ hands landed in their opponent’s hands instead.
“They came out in a zone that we were prepared for, and we actually did pretty well at it early on,” Brooks said. “And then they threw a different zone at us that – I still should have done a better job of communicating how we can attack it, but it definitely gave us some issues.
“We did not have a good shooting night. We had some just bad decisions – some of our shot selections the second quarter really set us back. I do give credit – they adjusted and forced a lot of our guys to be shooters.
“The big guy - #5 (Aydin Scott) – hasn’t played that much for them this year, and he dominated the game. He was defending the rim, he was finishing for them. We weren’t very poised. Really, we didn’t do anything well tonight. We didn’t rebound well. I thought we had too many turnovers.
“I’ll have to watch the film and really dive in. I’m definitely going to be kicking myself saying, ‘Why didn’t we try this? Why didn’t we try that?’ Sometimes it’s hard to adjust in a game. Kudos to them. They threw us a different look, and we struggled with it.”
Mulroy echoed similar sentiments.
“Things aren’t always going to go your way in life,” he said. “Tonight, things weren’t going our way. We’re not going to let that stop us from just keep playing hard.
“There were some things maybe we could have done better. Overall, I think we’re very proud of the season we had. That’s a very good team. We know we can compete with them. The thing that’s so tough to swallow is we’re not going to be able to get another chance to play them. If we played them again, I think we could hang with them. You’re not always going to have your best nights. We’re very proud of what we accomplished this year.”
--The never-say-die effort: Despite being down double digits in the second half, the Cardinals battled to the final horn.
“Last year, we had to trap a fair amount,” Brooks said. “There were six or seven games where we had to do what we did tonight, so I knew they had it in them that they’d done it before.
“This group always has fight. They will never give up. I felt like we continued to keep competing, but we just couldn’t get a run together. It was not our night. I can’t really say we did one thing well tonight reflecting on it. When I watch the film, maybe I’ll say we did something, but it’s hard to say right now.”
Just as they always won as a team, they also lost as a team, closing out their season with that same display of teamwork.
“No one cares how many points you score or your stat line,” Mulroy said. “We want to win. We love championships. That’s our goal.
“We’re all so close together – we all work out together in the offseason. Last year when we lost in the first round of states, we were in the gym two weeks later. We were going to LA Fitness, coming all together. Our coaches weren’t organizing it. I think that really helped our success this season. We just had such a great bond and chemistry on the court, which really helped our success too.”
Ant that teamwork and camaraderie will be as much a part of this team’s legacy as the trophies they won.
The season: Upper Dublin closed out its remarkable season with a 28-2 record and a whole lot of championships.
“It’s awesome,” Mulroy said. “I’ve seen football teams, baseball teams, lacrosse teams all do it at Upper Dublin and now to be one of those teams is very special, and I’m very proud to be part of it.”
Bonner Prendergast 13-14-17-15 59
Upper Dublin 12-5-12-8 37
Bonner-Prenderast (59) – Devon Nelson 4 3-4 11; Karey Francis 4 5-6 13; Kam Jackson 3 6-8 12; Jakeem Carroll 3 4-4 12; Aydin Scott 4 3-7 11; TOTALS 18 21-29 59.
Upper Dublin (37) – Kobe Bazemore 1 0-0 2; Ryan Mulroy 3 3-4 9; Idris Rines 4 3-4 11; Just Ragsdale 1 1-2 3; Reilly McLaughlin 4 2-2 12; TOTALS 13 9-12 37.
3-point goals: BP – Jakeem Carroll 2; UD - Reilly McLaughlin 2.
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