Upper Dublin honors state title with win over Springside Chestnut Hill

UPPER DUBLIN >> It was the one thing the Upper Dublin girls basketball team couldn’t prepare for this season.

Bringing back most of last year’s state title team was always going to put a unique challenge in front of the Cardinals in every game they played this winter. On top of that, there was the question of how much last year’s unexpected run to the championship hung over this year’s team and the goal it wanted to accomplish as its own entity.

There’s still a lot of season left, but the Cardinals hope they finally left last season behind Friday night.

UD took care of Springside Chestnut Hill 76-20 in the opening round of the Cardinal Classic and at halftime, had their last real recognition of the 2017-18 season as they unveiled their championship banner in the gym.

“It was a special night for the girls, we had most of the team back from last year and I was excited about the banner, it was a little bit of a surprise to the girls,” Cardinals coach Morgan Funsten said. “This kind of wraps up the special season we had last year. Now we can look forward to trying to improve and it starts with a major challenge (Saturday) against GA.”

Chestnut Hill (3-6, 0-1 Inter-Ac), which dressed just six players, didn’t have the size or depth to compete with Upper Dublin, which brought back six of last year’s top eight players in the rotation. While last year’s captains Maggie Weglos and Nicole Kaiser came back to help unveil the banner, they handed the keys over in Hershey last year.

So far, the Cardinals (6-1, 3-0 SOL American) are not a finished product. They lost handily to Archbishop Wood on Dec. 15, then needed a miracle fourth quarter comeback to erase a 23-point deficit against Abington on Dec. 20, their two biggest tests to date.

“We’ve been a little inconsistent in everything we’ve done,” Funsten said. “We talk to the girls about it, if we want to become a great team, we need to become more consistent. Our scorers have been inconsistent and our performance throughout a single game has been inconsistent.”

Save for the Wood game and a large part of the Abington game, Funsten said his team hasn’t played poorly this winter, it just doesn’t have that game-to-game consistency yet. The lineup is strikingly underclassmen heavy, with five sophomores or juniors in the starting unit and just two seniors on the roster.

That said, the UD coach does like the way his team has responded the last couple of weeks.

“I’m pretty happy with where we are,” Funsten said. “I think we’re starting to forget about last season in a good way. It was some un-needed pressure put on, I think some people were putting it on themselves and I think we’re starting to release that pressure. Hopefully it will make for a season where we continue to improve and is enjoyable for all of us.”

While Upper Dublin, which led 30-8 after the first quarter, had the game under control early, it didn’t go away from the things it has to do to be a consistent team. Jackie Vargas led the Cardinals with 16 points, who got two other players in double figures and two more finished with nine points.

The Cardinals racked up 22 assists on 30 made baskets, paced by eight helpers from sophomore guard Jess Polin. Meg Barbera, one of the squad’s co-captains this year, passed out four assists off the bench, a role that she’s embraced despite being a senior and a team leader.

“I’ve been very lucky with how unselfish all of my teams have been,” Funsten said. “They come to me that way, so I’ve been fortunate. It makes them that much more fun to coach.”

Upper Dublin closes out the 2018 part of its schedule against Germantown Academy in Saturday’s championship game at 2:30. The Patriots topped North Penn 69-25 in a similar fashion to Upper Dublin’s win with a lot of assists and a flurry of 3-point shots going in.

Funsten called GA “as complete of a team as there is out there,” and noted the Patriots’ length and athleticism, both things that Wood and Abington also used to their advantage earlier this year. It’s a test for UD, but also just  the type of game the Cardinals need as they move on fully from last year.

“We have to be smart with the ball, we have to play disciplined defensively because while they have a lot of weapons, each girl does her own thing really well,” Funsten said. “We have to understand and execute a defensive gameplan based on what their strengths are and whatever weaknesses they have. They don’t have many.”

UPPER DUBLIN 30 15 20 11 – 76
SPRINGSIDE CHESTNUT HILL 8 8 2 2 – 20
UD: Jackie Vargas 7 2-2 16, Jess Polin 3 0-0 9, Kara Grebe 4 2-2 10, Sarah Eskew 3 0-0 8, Dayna Balasa 4 0-0 11, Meg Barbera 1 0-0 2, Anajae Smith 3 3-4 9, Bliss Brenner 2 0-0 4, Jess Sobieski 2 0-0 4, Jackie Gorman 1 0-0 3. Totals: 30 7-8 76.
SCH: Davis 4 3-5 13, Kniezewski 1 1-2 4, Chavez 1 0-0 3. Totals: 6 4-7 20.
3-pointers: UD – Polin 3, Balasa 3, Eskew 2, Gorman; SCH – Davis 2, Kniezewski, Chavez.