UPPER DUBLIN – There was no avoiding the pressure for Haylie Adamski as she stepped to the foul line for two free throws in Wednesday’s night final minute with a chance to extend Garnet Valley girls basketball’s slim one-point advantage.
“I try my best to embrace it,” she said. “The crowd, they were all going, ‘Ahhhh,’ you know going crazy. So, I’m locked in. I do this all the time.”
Adamski connected on both, putting the No. 7 seed Jaguars up 47-44 with 43.3 seconds left in the District 1-6A fifth-place playback with host No. 3 Upper Dublin. And after Amy Ngo’s runner in the lane had the Cardinals within a point, Adamski was again sent to the line and once more converted a pair, giving Garnet Valley a 49-46 edge with 14.5 seconds.
“I’m just going to be honest, my foul shooting this year hasn’t been as high as I wanted it to be,” Adamski said. “So I knew coming down the stretch foul shots were important obviously in this game as we know so I needed to knock them down and I did.”
The Cardinals’ try for two on a drive did not fall and Kylie Mulholland – who put the Jaguars ahead in the fourth with her 3-pointer – grabbed the rebound and was fouled with just 0.8 seconds left. Mulholland connected on her second free throw to seal the 50-46 victory.
“We had no timeouts left, you hope that that’s another learning experience where if we’re in the same situation, we execute a little better down the stretch and just play a little smarter,” Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten said.
Adamski, who finished 7-of-8 from the foul line, scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the second half to help the Jaguars (22-5) bounce back from the loss to Conestoga last Saturday in the district quarters.
Mulholland added 17 points, 11 before halftime, while Emily Olsen contributed 10 points for Garnet Valley, which advances to visit No. 4 Haverford – a 53-42 winner over eight-seeded Central Bucks East – in the fifth-place game 7 p.m. Friday. Winner faces District 12’s No. 3 Cardinal O’Hara in the first round of the PIAA tournament with the loser meeting District 11’s runner-up.
“We played Conestoga four times this year and it was kind of like, OK, we know we can beat them but it was just a tough one that didn’t happen to go our way so we really wanted to come together,” Adamski said. “And it’s the end of the season but it’s not the end, we still have states and we can still go as far as we can so we’re looking to put all the pieces together now.”
Tamia Clark scored 17 points – 11 after the break – to pace Upper Dublin (22-4), which dropped its second straight after falling to Spring-Ford in the quarters last Saturday.
“Playing on one ankle, she was a fighter which was great cause I know she wasn’t happy with how she played against Spring-Ford,” said Funsten of Clark. “So really proud of her effort today and just once again I’m really hoping that we can use the game tonight as a learning tool for if we face that style in the future.”
Ngo collected eight of her 12 points in the second quarter for the Cardinals, who host CB East in the seventh-place game 7 p.m. Friday. Winner takes on District 3’s runner-up in the opening round of states with the losing side facing the District 12 runner-up.
“Credit to them with their athleticism, having the ability to speed us up mentally,” said Funsten of Garnet Valley. “That’s something that, like I said, is something that we haven’t seen a lot this year and it’s something that is really difficult to simulate in practice and I’m just hoping that the experience tonight that our girls had helps us in future games.”
Half of Olsen’s 10 points came during a personal 5-0 run in the fourth that knotted things at 40 after her 3-point play with 6:38 remaining. The Cardinals regained the lead on two Clark free throws 24 seconds later but Adamski scored in a crowd down low to pull the Jags level again at 42.
Bridget DiMartile snagged a ball off a blocked shot and drove in for two, putting UD up 44-42. Mulholland, however, drained a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to give Garnet Valley a 45-44 advantage.
“She was making a lot of shots so it was good that she made that,” said Adamski of Mulholland. “And then it just kind of brought us all together, be like OK we got this and we just kept going.”
Upper Dublin had two possessions still down a point but both ended in the Cardinals getting called for traveling, the second time with 1:26 left in regulation.
“We’ve done a really great job all year of taking care of the ball and I think we had about 15, 16 turnovers this game,” Funsten said. “Our goal is to keep I under 10 and obviously it’s not what we did. I think we had 10 turnovers in the second half, that certainly is no ideal against a team as talented as them.
“But a lot of credit to them because we haven’t faced a lot of teams that play in-your-face, pressure man-to-man defense and that’s what they showed and you try to simulate in practice but their physicality and their athleticism and their length is difficult.”
With just one team foul in the fourth, Upper Dublin needed to foul the Jaguars four times before putting Adamski on the line with 43.3 seconds remaining. Adamski made both but Ngo’s runner in the lane off a DiMartile pass had the margin at 47-46 with 18.8 seconds.
Adamski again went 2-for-2 at the line at 14.5 seconds and when Clark could not connect going to the basket Mulholland grabbed the rebound and ran off a bit of time before getting fouled with only 0.8 seconds left. Mulholland missed her first foul shot but got the second – Garnet Valley going 6-of-7 on free throws in the fourth after a 1-for-6 effort in the third.
Clark scored five points as Upper Dublin jumped out to a 7-0 lead but the Jaguars were down 12-9 at the end of the first quarter after an Olsen 3-pointer play at 3:54.
Two Adamski free throws tied the contest at 15 at 4:51 in the second quarter before an Ngo 3-pointer put the Cardinals back in front.
Upper Dublin extended its lead to five twice, the second time at 24-19 after Ngo’s two free throws at 1:54 but Garnet Valley ended the half with a 7-0 run. Mulholland hit a jumper then a 3-pointer to tie things at 24 while Adamski’s jumper gave the Jags their first lead at 26-24.
A Clark basket to cap a 6-0 run had Upper Dublin up 32-28 in the third. Garnet Valley pulled even at 33 on an Adamski bucket but Kaitlyn Zacharia’s 3-pointer gave the Cardinals a 36-33 lead. Clark’s basket inside off a Nora Brady sideline inbounds pass put UD ahead five but an Adamski two off a drive had Garnet Valley down 38-35 at the end of the quarter.
Upper Dublin took another five-point lead at 40-35 on Clark’s two free throws at 7:29 in the fourth before Olsen scored the next five to tie the game at 40.
Garnet Valley 50, Upper Dublin 46
Garnet Valley 9 17 9 15 – 50
Upper Dublin 12 12 14 8 – 46
Garnet Valley: Haylie Adamski 6 0 7-8 19; Kylie Mulholland 5 2 1-2 17; Emily Olsen 4 0 2-4 10; Addie Adamski 1 0 0-2 2; Kylie Adamski 1 0 0-0 2; Totals 17 2 10-16 50.
Upper Dublin: Tamia Clark 4 1 6-8 17; Amy Ngo 3 1 3-4 12; Bridget DiMartile 3 0 0-0 6; Kaitlyn Zacharia 0 2 0-0 6; Brighid Brady 1 1 0-0 5; Totals 11 5 9-12 46.
