Top-seeded Upper Dublin defeated seventh-seeded Pennsbury in Sunday’s District 1 6A title game at St. Joseph’s University. Photos provided courtesy of Michael Rice Photography & Darryl Rule of J&D Photography. Check back for a gallery of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports' GIRLS' BASKETBALL GALLERIES.
District 6A final
#1 UPPER DUBLIN 46, #7 PENNSBURY 18
PHILADELPHIA– If there were any doubts that Upper Dublin was eager and ready for Sunday’s District 1 6A title against Pennsbury, Megan Ngo put those to rest long before she boarded the bus for the trip to St. Joseph’s University.
“I won’t lie – I think I had my uniform on and my hair done at 6:30, and I’m not even joking,” UD’s senior point guard said. “I woke up, and it was just like, ‘Let’s do it, let’s do it.’ You want them to get to the time when the ball goes up and the game is starting, and yeah, from the very early morning today, I was ready.”
And Ngo let her teammates know.
“I woke up at 7:30, and I looked at my phone, and it’s a group text from Meg at 5:30,” senior Emilia Coleman said. “Right when I saw her at Upper Dublin, I was like, ‘Why were you up that early?’ I didn’t get it.
“But I was really excited. I couldn’t wait. I just wanted to play the game right then and there.”
The Cardinals were ready from the opening tap, and after the Falcons took a 1-0 lead when Sammie Haws buried one of two from the foul line, Coleman hit nothing but net on back-to-back 3-pointers. Her 3-pointers not only gave the Cards an early 6-1 lead but also effectively set the tone.
“That was huge,” Ngo said. “I’ll be the first to admit - I think we were all obviously nervous because we care so much and because we wanted it for not only ourselves but for each other and for all the hard work that we’ve put in this season, so I think seeing that first shot go down – all of us were able to take a breath and realize – ‘The ball does go in this basket.’”
By the end of the first quarter, the Cards led 11-3, and they added to that lead in the second, outscoring the Falcons 11-2 to go into halftime with a 22-5 advantage. The Cards closed out the half with Ella Morris finding Bridget DiMartile for an easy bucket.
Coleman’s nine points on three 3-pointers led UD in the half.
“There were times in the game where I thought it was much closer than it actually was,” Coleman said. “(Even with a lead), I think we still played really hard.”
The Cards delivered a highlight reel play early in the third quarter when Ngo came up with a steal and found Tamia Clark, who capped off the fast break with a reverse layup.
“That’s a big part of what we do in practice,” Ngo said. “We practice rotating on our press, and I was just there, and then she was up the court.
“She has crazy finishes, and I think she had like a jelly layup, and it was such a nice play.”
The Falcons had their best offensive stretch early in the third period, scoring eight points in less than four minutes to make it a 28-13 game. Joley Hohman accounted for six of those points. The Falcons scored just five points the rest of the way.
And what made life so difficult for the Falcons?
“The athleticism and discipline they send at you – as coach said, one is a Division 1 commit and the other is six feet tall,” Pennsbury sophomore Alyssa Thomas said. “But I just think we can grow from that.”
The Cardinals have dangerous offensive weapons with three of their starters – Coleman, Clark and Ngo –all surpassing the 1,000-point mark this season.
“What makes it hard to defend them is that they can send five people on the court that are all threats to score but in different ways,” Pennsbury sophomore Grace Schaufler said.
The Cards took a 33-15 lead into the final quarter, and with 3:17 remaining, Funsten subbed DiMartile out of the game. It was then, according to the veteran coach, that he knew his team was going to be victorious.
“I subbed out Bridget DiMartile first, and I gave her a hug,” Funsten said. “Usually, I’m a grumpy old man on the sidelines, so that was my moment of like, ‘Wow, this is really happening.’
“This was not a four or five-month journey. This was a 17-year journey. These girls do so much to work on their games. It’s been fun to watch these two (Ngo and Coleman) bring three-sport athletes, girls who just play for one season, and other girls who play year round (together), and just to bring them together for a common goal has been so much to fun to watch these two.”
DiMartile’s exit started a progression of substitutions with each starter able to take a bow.
“That was awesome,” Funsten said. “Being able to put Lexi (Ngo) in for her sister and just getting all the seniors in and just letting them play in that environment.
“Pennsbury called a timeout with about three minutes to go. I was drawing up a play, and I kind of stopped and just said, ‘Hey, listen, look around, you’ll not forget this moment. This is really cool experience.’ It’s been so much fun this year. These girls are awesome – 1 through 14. I am really proud of this team.”
Cards by the numbers: Emilia Coleman’s 17 points led the Cardinals. She also had six rebounds, two steals and one block. Tamia Clark added 11 points, a team-high eight rebounds and two steals. Megan Ngo added eight points, four rebounds and six assists, Bridget DiMartile had four rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten:
--The game: “We know how deliberate they are on offense, so it’s a balancing act because obviously if you’re just going to
run two at the ball like we have done at times, you’re opening yourself up for some open shots by them. I thought our girls handled the game plan really well in terms of - they got some open shots, but it was not from the girls they wanted to get open shots.
“The girls who scored on their team are not the girls who typically score for them, and that’s kind of the plan that we go in with every game. We don’t always execute it as well as we did today, but I thought the girls were great today.”
--Finishing strong: “The winter season is long and can be a grind for some of these girls that aren’t finding the floor, but our practices have been great leading up to this, and the challenge is to keep rolling – the maximum is 19 more days after this, so if we can’t find a way to stay hungry for 19 more days – and I think this group will. As Emilia said – taking it one game at a time is really important. This team – they’re confident, but they don’t look ahead. It’s just been such a fun ride.”
Pennsbury coach Frank Sciolla:
--Credit the Cardinals: “One of the more surprising things we saw last week was that they hadn’t been down in the (finals) for over a decade. I know they won (a district title) in 2007. I had an interview at school with one of our student reporters, and I said – ‘I have no memory of Upper Dublin not being loaded. They have been dominant for so long.’ What that told me was it’s so hard to get here. It is so incredibly hard to get here with 43 teams in the district and 24 teams that make the playoffs. They’re so good, and you prepare for them, and I thought we prepared well.
“We knew that if we didn’t make shots early on, we were going to have a hard time because we’d have to chase them, and with their experience on the floor – they’re rolling out multiple girls with from 80-100 games of high school varsity experience. So you’re going against this experience, and, of course, coach Funsten does an amazing job, so you have all those pieces.
“We scrimmaged Archbishop Carroll, and Carroll and Upper Dublin are the two most talented teams in the state. This is an Upper Dublin team that lost by a point to Friends Central. Friends Central just won the Friends League by beating Westtown. These are top 20 teams in the country, which probably Upper Dublin is as well.”
--Props: “Alyssa (Thomas) didn’t turn the ball over one time against full court pressure, against double and triples. If you would have told me we would never turn the ball over in the full court against pressure the whole game, I would say the game was going to be a lot closer. The open looks we did get – we were not able to knock them down.
“Grace (Schaufler) is somebody who often escapes attention because the average fan doesn’t understand the things she does. She has been such a big part for us down the stretch with her ability to guard multiple positions. She also makes good decisions with the ball. She knocked down a couple shots for us today. She’s a communicator, and she doesn’t often get mentioned, but we’re really not here without her, and I thought she played well today.”
Up next: Upper Dublin will host District 3’s seventh place team, Cedar Cliff, in Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A State Tournament (6 pm). Pennsbury will host District 3’s sixth place team, Mechanicsburg, in an opening round game Friday (4 pm).
Pennsbury 3-2-10-3 18
Upper Dublin 11-11-11-13 46
Pennsbury (18) – Grace Schaufler 2 0-0 4; Bridget McGonigle 1 0-0 3; Sammie Haws 1 1-2 3; Alyssa Thomas 1 0-0 2; Joley Hohman 3 0-0 6; TOTALS 8 1-2 18.
Upper Dublin (46) – Bridget DiMartiel 1 0-0 2; Tamia Clark 3 5-6 11; Maeve Hogan 0 2-2 2; Megan Ngo 1 5-6 8; Emilia Coleman 6 2-2 17; Ella Morris 2 0-0 6; TOTALS 13 14-16 46.
3-point goals: UD – Emilia Coleman 3, Ella Morris 2, Megan Ngo; P – Bridget McGonigle.
Coleman a key piece of the puzzle: Last year, Emilia Coleman – after contributing all season - watched the playoffs from the sidelines, ineligible to play because of the transfer rule. This year, she is making her presence felt.
The senior sharpshooter not only led the Cards in scoring with 17 points, she made her team’s first two shots – both 3-pointers that gave UD an early 6-1 lead.
“I thought Emilia set the tone for the entire team when she made those back-to-back 3s in the first quarter,” UD coach Morgan Funsten said. “Everybody’s got nerves, but you couldn’t tell with her today. She was all over the court, rebounding the ball. It was just what the team needed.
“The message before the game was – ‘Hey, whatever happens, we’ve got to stick together. There is going to be nerves, and you got to pull your teammates through.’ I thought that she kind of kicked this off and told everybody – ‘It’s going to be okay.’ That was some big shots.”
For Coleman, being on the court this time around is especially sweet.
“It means so much,” she said. “Going into the season, knowing that I could play a full season just meant so much to me, and I’m just continuing to use that as motivation knowing that I couldn’t play last year, and now I can.
“Now we’re coming to a part of the seasons where if you lose, you’re just done. We don’t want it to end, and I think we have such a special group. So just being able to continue to play and have fun - you never know when you’re going to have something like that again.”
A bright future: The Falcons had an especially rough shooting day against a veteran Upper Dublin squad, connecting on just 2 of 16 shots in the first half, but for a young Falcon squad, this experience could serve them well.
“Looking across at them as we were getting our medals, I was thinking about the fact that we start three sophomores, we had five in the rotation,” coach Frank Sciolla said. It’s an experience when you come down here. We are going to return a number of people who hopefully take this as a learning experience and don’t get too down on themselves.”
The veteran coach brought two of those young players – sophomores Alyssa Thomas and Grace Schaufler - with him to the postgame meeting with the media.
“I think there’s so much to grow from today offensively and on the defense,” Thomas said. “On the offensive end – how to read the defense. Their defense is like no other that we’ve seen all year except the one other time we played them, so I think we can learn from that, and we just have so much more to come in the future, and we’re not done yet.”
“It was a definitely a learning experience,” Schaufler said. “Alyssa and I are both sophomores, and we still have two full years year.
“That was definitely a feeling that I never want to experience again. Would we have liked to do better? Yes, but we can’t change that now, so we just have to look at the future.”
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