Upper Dublin handles Wissahickon, keeps SOL Liberty title hopes alive

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Upper Dublin inched closer to its first league title in 20 years Tuesday night.

The Cardinals rolled over rival Wissahickon, 52-37, while Abington beat Plymouth Whitemarsh, 62-59, to create a three-way tie at the top of the Suburban One League Liberty Division standings.

Upper Dublin, Wissahickon and Plymouth Whitemarsh have matching 11-4 SOL Liberty records with one game to go. Upper Dublin travels to Hatboro-Horsham (1-13 SOL Liberty) Thursday night while PW hosts Wissahickon.

“You have three teams in the hunt for the division title in the last week of the season,” Upper Dublin coach Chris Monahan said. “You can’t draw it up any better. This is why you play.”

“Between PW, (Upper Dublin) and us,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said, “there is some great basketball being played in the Suburban One.”

The Cardinals wasted no time jumping out to a big lead at Wissahickon Tuesday. After falling behind 3-2, UD scored 10 straight points and led, 14-5, after eight minutes.

The Trojans responded with an 11-3 run to get within one, 17-16, but that’s as close as they’d get the rest of the game. Upper Dublin scored the final seven points of the second quarter and the first eight points of the third for a 15-0 run and 32-16 lead.

“We have guys on the floor, really five guys at a time, that can make shots,” Monahan said. “Now sometimes we get in ruts and we sat on 17 for a long time, which got them back in the game, but when we’re moving the ball and we’re sharing it with five guys, we have kids that can score in different spots. I think it was more us moving the ball instead of dribble-dribble-dribble, trying to go one-on-one.”

“We just started playing calm,” Upper Dublin’s DJ Cerisier said of the game-changing run. “We’re better at doing that. We didn’t worry about the crowd or anything. We just played our game.”

Noah Lee made one basket in the game for Upper Dublin and it was a big one. The sharpshooter knocked down a three-pointer in the final seconds of the first half to extend a five-point lead to eight, 24-16.

“He’s a shooter,” Monahan said. “Got a great look, knocked it down. He doesn’t play as many minutes as other guys, but when he comes in he works his butt off and I couldn’t be happier for a kid to make a shot than for Noah Lee to make that one.”

The Trojans got within 11 twice in the fourth quarter, 37-26 and 39-28, but that’s as close as they’d get. Cerisier went 5-for-6 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to help close the door on a 52-37 win.

“(Upper Dublin) brought the better game today,” Wilson said. “We played more their game than them playing our’s. That’s going to happen. We didn’t play a lot of assist basketball. We played downhill one-on-one and we have to better execute our stuff and work better as a team. They were clearly, clearly the better team tonight.”

Cerisier and Seaton Kukla led Upper Dublin with 13 points apiece and Colin O’Sullivan added 10.

Morgan Wilson was the only Trojan to score in double figures with 16 points.

Upper Dublin 52, Wissahickon 37

Upper Dublin 14 10 13 15 – 52

Wissahickon 5 11 8 13 – 37

UD: Cerisier 3 5-6 13, Lee 1 0-0 3, Kohlbrenner 1 0-1 2, M Pensabene 0 0-0 0, O’Sullivan 2 5-5 10, Mulroy 0 0-0 0, G Pensabene 0 2-2 2, Johnson 4 1-2 9, Kukla 5 2-4 13. Total 16 15-20 52.

W: Lassiter 1 0-0 2, Twersky 1 1-3 4, Williams 2 2-2 7, Wilson 5 5-8 16, Dias 0 0-0 0, Vacchiano 1 0-0 2, Stout 3 0-0 6. Total 13 8-13 37.

3-point goals: UD: Cerisier 2, Lee, O’Sullivan, Kukla. W: Twersky, Williams, Wilson.