District 1 Boys Basketball: With right adjustments, Garnet Valley escapes deep hole to dump Upper Dublin
UPPER DUBLIN — If a career in and around high school basketball coaching has taught Mike Brown anything, it is that plans can be fuzzy but adjustments can always provide clarity.
The stunning 48-46 victory that he guided 24th-seeded Garnet Valley to Friday night at No. 9-seed Upper Dublin in the first round of the PIAA District 1 Class 6A tournament only fortified that belief.
Concerned about the Cardinals’ speed and the films having shown them to occasionally struggle from deep, Brown ordered an old-fashioned, one-foot-in-the-lane, hands-up 3-2 zone for most of the first three quarters.
“Then, they lit us up,” he shrugged. “So much for my scouting report.”
That, Upper Dublin did, going over the top for five first-half three-pointers and building a 30-14 lead on a Colin O’Sullivan triple early in the third. That’s when the Cardinals chose to go four corners.
The idea was to shorten the game. The effect was to widen the defense, the Jaguars springing both into a man-to-man and a frenzied effort to prove they were better than their seeding reflected. With Upper Dublin turning cold, Garnet Valley sizzled … and every role was reversed.
When the Jaguars finally grabbed a 42-41 lead on a Logan McKee three-pointer with 3:15 left, and when Max Koehler made it 44-41 with a driving bucket, there suddenly was a necessary reversal in strategies. Since the Cards had not committed a foul in the second or third quarters and remained almost as clean into the fourth, they would be forced to foul repeatedly if they wanted to send Garnet Valley into a one-and-one foul line challenge. With that, it was the Jags, in a blast of irony, who would spread the floor.
Ryan Faccenda made both ends of a one-and-one for a 46-43 lead with 33 seconds showing, but DJ Cerisier answered with the final three of his team-high 14 points on a shot from the left corner with 10.5 seconds showing, forcing a tie and bringing the crowd to a roar. But with less than a second left, McKee would come charging from the weak side to rebound Faccenda’s shot and deposit the rebound for the 48-46 lead, drawing a foul.
Upper Dublin rebounded the missed free throw and called a timeout with four-tenths of a second left, yet was unable to generate a shot, and settled for a 16-7 season. Garnet Valley improved to 15-8 and would ride a three-game winning streak to a Tuesday game at eighth-seeded Spring-Ford (13-7).
“We don’t have the highest seed, obviously,” McKee said. “But I take it both as a badge of honor and a challenge. People see us as an underdog. But I think we’re going to win it all.”
That’s how it looked late Friday night.
Early?
Maybe not.
“We shot a lot better in the first half than we did many times all year,” said Josh Deache, who coached the Cardinals, reporting that head coach Chris Monahan was unavailable due to Covid. “In many ways, we were smoking some mirrors ourselves.
“We knew they were a good shooting team the entire time. And then they made every shot in the second half. They really did. They are a good team. They are a lot better than a 24 seed. They ended our season last year. So obviously, coming in, our guys were aware of that. For three-and-a-half quarters, we played pretty good. And then they responded at every opportunity. We needed stops down the stretch and we didn’t get those. We missed a box out, and that’s it.
“We won our conference for the first time in 20 years, but we have 11 players coming back. I told our juniors, ‘How much does this hurt?’ We’re all aching right now.”
O’Sullivan mixed three three-pointers and ferocious defense into his 13-point night. Koehler led the Jags with 15 points, and Ryan Wootten, who dropped three triples, had 11.
“We never give up,” Koehler said. “We played good basketball down the stretch. We made the right plays. Our defense played hard. It was challenging all along, but we all trusted our teammates to make the right plays. I think we are ready to do some damage at 24. I think we are as good as any team in the tournament, to be honest with you.”
The immediate Garnet Valley task is to be as good as Spring-Ford, which it scrimmaged to some measure of satisfaction in the preseason, providing a template for preparation.
From there, it will all be about the adjustments.
“I don’t think we are a typical 24 seed,” Brown said. “I think we are a lot better than a 24 seed. I think our league is pretty good. This is a good start. But we are on the road again. Such is the life of a 24 seed.”
