Upper Dublin struggles on offense, falls to CB South in District 1-AAAA 3rd place game

UPPER DUBLIN >> Despite the fact they went the full 32 minutes Friday night, the girls’ District 1-AAAA third-place game between Upper Dublin and CB South was all but over at halftime.

“I thought we lost the game in the first half,” UD head coach Morgan Funsten said after the game. “Everything (CB South) wanted us to do on offense we did.”

Upper Dublin sputtered on offense all night in a 50-39 loss to finish fourth in the district.

The Lady Cardinals scored just 22 points in the first three quarters with performances of six, seven, and nine points. UD also turned the ball over 12 times in the game.

“I didn’t think we were aggressive enough on offense, even getting open,” Funsten said. “They put pressure on all five spots…we just stood around too much and we didn’t work to get open.”

The Upper Dublin offense started to struggle in the first quarter, but it was in a full-blown slog in the second. The Lady Cardinals didn’t score in the second quarter until there was just over a minute left, committing five turnovers along the way. That allowed South to go on a 12-0 run that spanned about 11 minutes of game time.

“I thought that the turnovers we had in the second quarter were a result of us not being aggressive on offense and not staying connected offensively,” Funsten said. “When a girl is in trouble you gotta get open and you gotta recognize who is open. We were very disconnected in the first half offensively.”

The bright spot on offense for Upper Dublin was Allison Chernow, who had 19 points in the game to lead all scorers.

“Because we were having so much trouble even making entry passes to get any offense going she recognized that she needed to be more aggressive and she was,” Funsten said.

The senior had two threes and went 7-8 from the line in the game. Josie Barrett added 11 points for the Lady Cardinals.

The star for CB South in the game has been a star all year long, and for her entire career really. Jordan Vitelli had 16 points for the Titans, including her 1,000th career point, in the game.

“Jordan is just a hard worker who works from the moment she steps on the court,” CB South head coach Beth Mattern said. “She’s the first to dive on the ball. She’s really kept us in games and won us games. I’m really proud of her and happy for her that she got 1,000 points. It’s a big milestone.”

Upper Dublin can take a bit of momentum into the state playoffs despite the loss, thanks to a 10-1 run late in the game. The problem was the lead had ballooned to 18 when that run started.

“We fought. We cut it from 18 to 8 in about two minutes. You can see that we have a bunch of fighters, we have a bunch of winners on the team,” Funsten said. “We gotta take positives out of this…We’ve had a great season, regardless of what happened these last two games.”

The first quarter was back-and-forth for the first four minutes, as the game had three ties early. Upper Dublin would begin to sputter on offense, however, and South would take advantage by outscoring the Lady Cardinals 8-4 in the final four minutes.

Courtney Dietzel stood out on offense for the Titans, scoring six points and grabbing three rebounds in the first.