Neylon leads Unionville to second round with win over Upper Merion
EAST MARLBOROUGH >> Unionville star senior guard Sean Neylon wanted to be aggressive in the Longhorns’ opening round game of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs against Upper Merion Saturday afternoon.
Mission accomplished.
Neylon came out of the gate firing, scoring 16 first-half points, including 10 in the first quarter alone. Neylon’s fast start gave the eighth-seeded Longhorns an early lead, en route to a 49-34 runaway win over No. 9 Upper Merion.
Neylon drained four 3-pointers on the day, on his way to a game-high 22 points. Unionville will now travel to play top-seeded Upper Moreland, Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
“We tell the guys all the time, and Sean has been with for four years, that whatever or whenever is your last game, go out and be aggressive,” Unionville coach Chris Cowles said. “He did that today and he carried us in the first half.”
It wasn’t just Neylon who downed the hard-luck Vikings (9-9). The Unionville (5-5) defense was very active as the Longhorns threw multiple zone defense looks at Upper Merion and held the Vikings to just 12 combined points in the second and third quarters. Also for Upper Merion, senior shooting guard Lucas Kim left the game early in the second quarter with an injured left ankle, and his loss really crippled the Vikings offense.
“He has been battling that ankle injury for a good two weeks,” Upper Merion coach Jason Quenzer said. “He came back a little early because he wanted to play and that probably did not help. He has been with me for four years and to see him go out like that really hurts. He is a real good kid. And we were already a man down so his loss really hurts.”
With a 22-16 halftime lead, Unionville got some help for Neylon in the third quarter when it blew the game open, outscoring Upper Merion, 16-6, in the third. Jack Casten drained two of his three 3-pointers in the quarter and Jake Kammeier scored off an Upper Merion turnover, one of 13 for the Vikings, to make it a 32-22 Unionville lead late in the third quarter. Another Upper Merion miscue led to Neylon running the floor and throwing down a monster slam and at the end of the period, and Unionville had a commanding 38-22 advantage.
Unionville ended the third quarter on a 8-0 run.
“I felt good before the game in warmups,” Neylon said. “And we really had a good couple of days of practice and our coaches put in a real good game plan defensively. It’s a great feeling to get the first win out of the way. But, we go to Upper Moreland and they are very good so we have to clean some things up in practice and be ready.”
Without Kim in the lineup, the Upper Dublin offense was having all kinds of trouble with the Longhorns defense. The Vikings shot just one for nine in the third quarter when Unionville took over the game. The fourth saw Upper Merion opening things up a little, but Unionville did a masterful job of playing keep-away from the Vikings and hitting its free throws, and the Longhorns move on to Tuesday night and a date with No. 1 Upper Moreland. For the game, Upper Merion shot just 11 for 36 from the field.
“We simplified a lot of things offensively to concentrate on our defense,” Cowles said. “And I thought we did a real good job today on that end and we will need that to continue.”
For Upper Merion, it was the second year in a row the Vikings have seen their season end against the Longhorns, and Quenzer talked about how tough Neylon was today.
“I thought we played good team defense but we lost a few too,” Quenzer said. “We lost out on some corner three-pointers and he shot very well.”
Unionville 49, Upper Merion 34
UPPER MERION (34) Jones 2 2-2 6, Kim 1 0-0 3, Tatom 1 4-4 7, Lawson 3 2-3 9, Smith 1 0-0 2, Eyer 1 0-0 2, Abdussamad 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 9-11 34.
UNIONVILLE (49) Neylon 9 0-0 22, Carello 1 0-0 3, Kammeier 2 0-0 4, Casten 3 0-0 9, Nowostait 2 4-4 8, Lenkatis 0 3-3 3, Tayoun 0 0-1 0, D’Amico 0 0-2 0. Totals 17 8-11 49.
Upper Merion 10 6 6 12-34
Unionville 12 10 16 9-49
3-point goals: Kim, Tatom, Casten 3, Neylon 4.
