Upper Dublin’s Amy Ngo sets new career-high with 31 points in win over Wissahickon

LOWER GWYNEDD >> In just her fifth game of the season, Amy Ngo was perfect from the field.

The Upper Dublin junior guard went 11-for-11 and scored a career-high 31 points in a 61-32 Suburban One League Liberty Division win over Wissahickon Friday evening at Wissahickon High School.

“It felt really good,” Ngo, who was 3-for-4 from the free-throw line, said. “Yesterday night I asked my mom to give me a prep talk because I wasn’t feeling completely there yet. My shots in practice yesterday weren’t feeling great, so I was like, ‘Mom I need a pep talk to hype me up.’ I don’t know, it just really helped me today.”

“Her shot is a thing of beauty,” Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten said. “There’s no fluke when she makes shots. She has balance, she squares up – I’m always surprised when she doesn’t make it.”

Ngo missed the first 13 games of the season recovering from a knee injury she suffered in the District 1 playoffs last year. She’s helped the Cardinals win all five of the games she’s played to improve to 13-5 overall and 10-3 in the SOL Liberty Division.

Ngo did most of her damage in the second and third quarters. She was 5-for-5 with three three-pointers in a 15-point second quarter and 4-for-4 with three three-pointers in an 11-point third quarter. She had two points in the first quarter and three in the fourth before exiting with the game in hand.

“The coaches – that’s also another thing yesterday in practice – they were like, ‘We need you to shoot,” Ngo, who went 6-for-6 from three-point range, said. “They were saying keep it simple, when you’re open we need you to shoot. That’s how it went today.”

The Cardinals had a couple early turnovers and fell behind 8-4, but responded with a 24-5 run to build a 29-13 lead in the second quarter. The lead grew to 17 at the half, 35-18.

Ngo’s return to the floor not only helps Upper Dublin’s scoring, it also helps the team to protect the ball. After the two early turnovers, the Cardinals only gave the ball away two more times the rest of the game.

“We turned the ball over a couple times in the first quarter,” Funsten said. “We knew we wanted to play faster tonight. Outside of the first quarter I thought we played fast and we took care of the ball. Those are the two things that aren’t always easy to do together.”

Colleen Besachio joined Ngo in double figures with 11 points while Megan Ngo and Nora Brady each added five.

Kaitlyn McGeary led Wissahickon (5-13, 3-10 SOL Liberty) with 15 points and tallied a double-double with 11 rebounds. Maura Jacobs added six points with a pair of three.

Upper Dublin 61, Wissahickon 32
Upper Dublin 9 26 17 9 – 61
Wissahickon 8 10 9 5 – 32
Upper Dublin: Alaina Sanders 1 0-0 2, Megan Ngo 1 3-4 5, Amy Ngo 11 3-4 31, Colleen Besachio 5 0-0 11, Nora Brady 2 0-0 5, Brighid Brady 0 0-0 0, Catherine Scullen 0 0-0 0, Makyla Keyes 0 0-0 0, Kaylee Fitzkee 1 0-0 2, Lilli Kleiman 1 0-0 2, Sofia Machado 0 0-0 0, Maisie McGarvey 0 0-0 0, Kaitlyn Zacharia 1 0-0 3. Total 23 6-8 61.
Wissahickon: Eva Schools 1 0-0 2, Kaitlyn McGeary 5 4-6 15, Julia Lettieri 0 2-2 2, Claira Baldasano 1 0-0 2, Kyle Friedman 1 0-0 2, Chloe Acuna 0 0-0 0, Skye Sydney 1 1-2 3, Maura Jacob 2 0-0 6, Ava Stout 0 0-2 0. Total 11 7-12 32.
3-point goals: UD: Nora Brady, Amy Ngo 6, Colleen Besachio, Kaitlyn Zacharia. W: Kaitlyn McGeary, Maura Jacob 2.