Villa Maria eases past Upper Moreland

It’s been quite a long time since Upper Moreland made the District One AAA playoffs and Upper Moreland coach Ed Decker explained how this year’s senior class was the class to help turn the corner for the program.
“I told my seniors they were the group that’s changing who we are,” Decker said. “We haven’t been in this playoff in 15-16 years. I told them when I got here we’re going to change the way we are and they were the first group to finally get to a district playoff game.”
The Golden Bears season came to an end Tuesday night as the No. 6 seeded Villa Maria eased past Upper Moreland 53-18.
While both teams entered the game with sub-.500 records part of reason behind that is both teams play tough conferences/leagues particularly for Upper Moreland.
The benefits to playing a tough schedule however is preparing a team for the heated competition of the postseason.
“We play a very tough schedule, we lost some close games, we lost some tough games in our conference,” Villa coach Kathy McCartney said.
Villa was able to hit Upper Moreland with points in the paint headlined by Marielle Picinich, who finished with a game-high 14 points with Abby Walheim chipping in 11.
“We see the pressure from Upper Dublin, Norristown and Cheltenham to prepare us for that (pressure,” Decker added.
A quick start was also beneficial as the Hurricanes jumped out to 15-6 lead after the first quarter and continued to build on the lead from there winning the second quarter 10-2.
“When you play with a lead you’re a lot more relaxed so things start to work for you more,” McCartney said. “That definitely was the case tonight, we got out early, we could just relax and we could run our stuff pretty easily.”
For Upper Moreland this playoff appearance is an ode to its seniors but should also bode well for a budding program that will bring back key starters such as Maddie Pisut and Noelle Woodman.
Waiting for Villa in the second round is a tough match up with the No. 3 seed Lower Moreland which should present a heavy-guard oriented matchup.
“They’re going to be a tough matchup for us,” McCartney said of Lower Moreland. “They’re good. We got to go to their place so it will be a tough matchup.”