Upper Dublin rallies past Archbishop Carroll in PIAA AAAA 1st round

CHELTENHAM >> It took 26 minutes, but eventually the Upper Dublin girls basketball team showed up in the first round of states.

The Lady Cardinals finished their PIAA Class AAAA opener against Archbishop Carroll with strong defense and contributions from every player on offense to win, 40-38, at Cheltenham High School.

The win wasn’t secured until the final second.

In a tie game with 15 seconds left, Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten called timeout.

The Cardinals came out, took their time and Carroll had the play covered, but an extra pass set up the game-winner.

Junior Demi Balasa passed the ball underneath with one second left to sophomore Nicole Kaiser, who banked it in as time expired.

“That last play at the end, there was multiple good decisions made by our players,” Funsten said. “They shared the ball. Demi made the extra pass to Nicole and nobody’s better than Nicole in the post at finishing. It was an exciting win.

“The number one option was Demi to shoot the three. To Demi’s credit, they flew out on her and left Nicole. They were late rotating down on Nicole and even if Nicole has a girl on her back, she’s good. It was designed for Demi and Demi made a great decision like she always makes great decisions.”

Early in the fourth, it didn’t look like Upper Dublin was going to come away with the win.

Carroll erased a five-point deficit midway through the third quarter and went on an 17-2 run to take a 10-point lead, 34-24, early in the fourth quarter.

Upper Dublin’s Allison Chernow made a three, followed by a two from Carroll’s Bella Sorrentino, to make it a 36-27 game with six minutes left. Carroll did not score again for a while.

The Cardinals scored the next 11 points – by five different players – capped by a Chernow three, to take a 38-36 lead with 1:11 to play. Carroll’s Molly Masciantonio made a jump shot to tie the game at 38 with less than 30 seconds remaining.

“I saw a team that doesn’t quit,” Funsten said of the final six minutes. “The third quarter was very uncharacteristic of us. If you had never seen us all season, you would’ve thought Upper Dublin was done … Then our pressure got to them a little bit, we were able to get some baskets in transition. I just thought it was the ultimate – just keep fighting , keep fighting, keep fighting. And even when we went up two on the Chernow three, for them to respond with a basket themselves showed a lot on Carroll’s end to keep composure.”

“I think our youth showed up big time,” Patriots coach Tom Nerney said of the final six minutes. “I think we just got a little nervous and made some mistakes, didn’t take care of the ball. (Upper Dublin) did a good job of extending on us.”

Masciantonio scored a game-high 14 points and Sorrento joined her in double figures with 11.

Chernow paced Upper Dublin with 11 points and Kaiser added 10.

Upper Dublin will face the winner of Hazelton and Neshaminy in the second round of the playoffs, Tuesday.

The loss puts an end to Carroll’s season.