Stover scores 1,000th point, finishes with 29 as Upper Dublin routs Hatboro-Horsham

UPPER DUBLIN >> On the verge of scoring his 1,000^th career point, Drew Stover had open court and the basket waiting. The only thing left for the Upper Dublin boys basketball senior was making sure the ball went through the hoop.

“I had all the adrenaline, I’m actually surprised I didn’t miss it,” he said. “But that’s probably the highlight of my basketball – not even high school but basketball career in general. So it was amazing.”

A fast break started by a Noah Lee steal ended with Stover striding down the lane ahead of a Hatboro-Horsham defender and putting in a left-handed layup  – points 11 and 12 Thursday night to reach the milestone with 1:43 left in the second quarter of their SOL Liberty Division matchup.

“I was thinking about it all day,” Stover said. “Obviously, anybody who’s about to get theirs is nervous before that game. But I don’t know, I just went with the flow, had a good game.”

Stover’s two in transition was part of 12-0 run that capped the first half and gave Upper Dublin a 33-13 lead at the break. The Cardinals cruised from there – Stover scoring a game-high 29 points as UD avenged an earlier loss to the Hatters with a 74-30 blowout victory.

“That’s a great feeling,” Stover said. “That’s all we were talking about yesterday at practice and while we were watching film. So, it feels awesome to stomp on them.”

The Cardinals (8-5, 5-4 division) lost the teams’ first meeting 48-42 on the road Jan. 26 and Upper Dublin coach Chris Monahan said the Hatters let them hear about it, especially to sophomores Colin O’Sullivan and DJ Cerisier, who both transferred in this year from Hatboro-Horsham.

The loss for Upper Dublin was the start of a four-game skid that had it at 5-5 but the Cardinals have since regrouped, with Thursday’ rout extending their current win streak to three.

“We were not happy with the first result,” Monahan said. “We didn’t play well in lot of areas, so we definitely wanted to bounce back. But the other angle to it is that Colin and DJ the first time around, we were 0-for-15 from three, I think, DJ might have been 0-for-7, Colin didn’t make any and their bench was taunting them the entire game.

“And after they won, their bench was yelling at Colin, so we had revenge on a couple different levels. In the win column but also just in the personal column that it’s like ‘Yo, you’re not going to punk us.’ So we wanted to come out and show that on the floor.”

Cerisier finished with 17 points, eight coming in the second quarter, while Seaton Kukla chipped in 13 points for the Cardinals, who eclipsed 70 points for the second time in three games.

“We had to get this game back,” Cerisier said. “They said I couldn’t shoot, knocked down two threes. Their bench was quiet. We had the energy. We just came out with the W. We didn’t have that many turnovers, we played good.”

Eric Butler paced Hatboro-Horsham (3-6, 3-6) with 10 points. The Hatters are home against Wissahickon 7 p.m. Friday while Upper Dublin steps out of SOL play Saturday to host Holy Ghost Prep at 7:30 p.m.

Stover has been a scoring dynamo throughout his senior season – recording at least 22 points in all but one game and twice scoring 30 or more – putting in a season-best 31 in a win over Quakertown Jan. 19.

“I did not expect this, to be honest,” said Monahan of Stover’s performance in 2021. “His years just going back to his sophomore year, the progress to junior year, I knew he could be good, but he went from maybe eight points a game to 19 points a game. And then you’re thinking OK, well he can probably duplicate that and teams are going to gang up on him so scoring close to 30 is hard when the defense is just gearing towards you.

“But he’s been able to take double teams, triple teams and still put up the numbers he is, I mean it’s impressive.”

Coming in needing 12 points for 1,000, Stover began Thursday with a three-point play 16 seconds into the game but early on had a few looks from close range that would not fall. He got back in the scoring column with a basket inside while a putback late in the first quarter had him at seven points – the same as UD’s lead at the end of the opening period, 11-4.

“Those first few worried me a little but once I got that next bucket, just forgot about it,” Stover said. “And then from there I just kept on going.”

Another three-point play at 4:51 in the second quarter put Stover at 10 with the 6-foot-7 senior’s fast-break layup with 1:43 making him the first UD boys player since Jamil Brown in 2010 to reach the 1,000-point mark.

With the game paused to recognize the milestone, Stover celebrated with a leaping chest bump to assistant coach Josh Daeche and also shared a hug with his dad Bret Stover, UD’s football coach who was keeping the Cardinals’ scorebook.

“I was really down about corona and stuff,” Stover said.  “Senior year’s ruined and this was practically one of the only things to look forward to until some end of the year senior stuff that the senior class does. So being that that stuff might not even be happening, I mean this is kind of like a last leg for me, so I think leaving it all out there is just a big part.”

Stover scored Upper Dublin’s first seven points in the third – his three-point play at 6:02 making it 38-14. The Cardinals had a 50-20 lead entering the fourth, where Stover put his full skillset on display.

He knocked down a jumper to make it 52-20 then had a dunk in transition. Stover threw down a slam off a Cerisier alley-oop then on a fast break went behind his back, spun and laid the ball into the hoop for a 58-23 advantage.

His final two points came by slamming a Cerisier alley-oop off the backboard that made it 68-23.

“It’s not something we practice but it’s always on his mind, it’s always on my mind,” Stover said. “I had one of those last year with a senior and that was a great memory so that was awesome.”

Hatboro-Horsham led just once Thursday after four straight points by Zehier Cheeze had the Hatters up 4-3. The Cardinals, however, scored the first quarter’s last seven points – four from Stover – for an 11-4 advantage.

Dan Simpson’s basket off an offensive rebound had HH within 11-6 but UD grabbed their first double-digit lead at 18-8 after a Cerisier three. Butler knocked down a trey only for Stover’s three-point play to put the Cards back up 10 at 4:51.

Butler put back his own miss to make it 21-13 but the rest of the half’s scoring was done by Upper Dublin. Cerisier drained a three then scored in transition for a 26-13 lead. Stover’s fast-break layup was followed by Lee connecting on a three then driving down the baseline for two more, giving UD a 20-point cushion at halftime.

A twisting layup by Lee made it 48-18 while Cerisier jumper in the quarter’s final seconds had the Cardinals up 50-20 at the end of the third.

Upper Dublin 74, Hatboro-Horsham 30
Hatboro-Horsham 4 9 7 10 – 30
Upper Dublin 11 22 17 24 – 74
Hatboro-Horsham: Eric Butler 4 0-0 10; Zehier Cheeze 2 1-2 5; Noah Schlosser 2 0-1 5; Jack Joyce 1 0-0 3; Joshua Spruill 1 1-2 3; Sam Fink 1 0-0 2; Dan Simpson 1 0-2 2; Kyle Dittus 0 0-1 0; Totals 12 2-8 30.
Upper Dublin: Drew Stover 13 3-3 29; DJ Cerisier 6 3-3 17; Seaton Kukla 5 1-2 13; Noah Lee 3 2-2 9; Chris Gress 1 2-2 4; Griffin Pensabene 1 0-2 2; Anthony Fatiga 0 0-3 0; Totals 29 11-17 74.
3-pointers: HH-Butler 2, Joyce, Schlosser; UD-Cerisier 2, Kukla 2, Lee.