Upper Dublin’s defense dominates Cumberland Valley in PIAA-6A opener
HARRISBURG >> Defense wins championships.
No one knows that better than the Upper Dublin girls basketball team. The Cardinals core, which won the PIAA-6A state championship in 2018 and reached the semifinals in 2019, has consistently played excellent defense over the last three seasons. Their defensive performance in the state opener Friday night may have been their best yet.
(1-5) Upper Dublin shut down (3-3) Cumberland Valley and cruised to a 42-19 win in the first round of the PIAA-6A state playoffs at Central Dauphin East High School.
“All week we just prepared really well for what their strengths were and what they were going to do,” Upper Dublin’s Sarah Eskew said. “We just came ready to play and worked really hard on defense. We always work really hard on defense.”
The Cardinals defense set the tone early. Jackie Vargas blocked three shots in the first quarter and Bliss Brenner and Anajae Smith each had one rejection. They limited CV, which didn’t drive to the basket as much over the final three quarters, to one made basket and three points through eight minutes.
“Who would go inside against (Vargas)?” Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten said. “She does a great job of defending without fouling. She set the tone early. Sometimes she doesn’t realize how important she is to us. Even in a game like tonight where she only scored two points – the threat of trying to attack the basket and her waiting for you and offensively every time she got a touch they collapsed on her.”
It was more of the same in the second quarter. Upper Dublin didn’t allow a single made basket and Cumberland’s Valley only point came when guard Julie Jekot split a pair of three throws. The Cardinals, who only scored two points in the second quarter, went into the half ahead, 13-4.
Sarah Eskew limited Jekot, the Eagles go-to scorer, to six points in the game. Brenner also spent time one-on-one with Jekot.
“Me and Bliss are always prepared to guard the other team’s best player,” Eskew said. “We just come to play. I love being a defender.”
“Our goal was to keep (Jekot) under eight,” Funsten said. “She finished with six. That was a reason for one of the many, many cheers in the locker room after the game.”
The Cardinals blew the game open in the third quarter. The defense again held the Eagles to one field goal and one free throw – a total of four points in the quarter. The offense found its stride, hitting three three-pointers and totaling 16 points to extend their lead to 29-8.
“In games that we’ve struggled this year there’s been times that we go on a little run and then we give it up defensively instead of extending,” Funsten said. “What I’m really excited about is our last two games – our game against North Penn and then tonight – we were able to extend that lead.”
The game-changing run was an 11-0 stretch. Dayna Balasa sandwiched two threes around a Jess Polin three and Smith followed with a basket to turn a 17-7 lead to 28-7.
The Cardinals went 7-for-11 from three in the game. Balasa was 4-for-5.
“Shooting 63% from three-point range definitely doesn’t hurt,” Funsten said. “We knew it was going to be a grind-it-out game. When we scouted them we saw that they’re a half-court team. It’s no secret that we’re a half-court team. We thought we matched up well with them and we thought we were similar type teams but to be honest we thought we were a little bit better. We had to come and make some shots.”
Balasa scored a game-high 12 points. Kara Grebe added seven points and Brenner, Smith and Polin each had five.
The Cardinals will face (7-2) Bethel Park in the second round Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.
Upper Dublin 42, Cumberland Valley 19
Upper Dublin 11 2 16 13 – 42
Cumberland Valley 3 1 4 11 – 19
UD: Brenner 1 2-3 5, Smith 1 3-5 5, Bilger 1 0-0 2, Polin 1 2-2 5, Grebe 3 0-1 7, Gorman 0 0-0 0, Eskew 1 2-2 4, Balasa 4 0-0 12, Vargas 1 0-0 2. Total 13 9-13 42.
CV: Miller 3 0-0 6, Jekot 1 3-6 6, Holcomb 1 0-0 3, Murphy 0 2-2 2, Hill 0 0-0 0, Campbell 0 0-0 0, Krause 1 0-0 2, Phillips 0 0-0 0, Burns 0 0-0 0, Basehore 0 0-0 0. Total 6 5-8 19.
3-point goals: UD: Brenner, Polin, Grebe, Balasa 4. CV: Jekot, Holcomb.
